I believe you must be very familiar with Michelin tires, because this French tire factory is called the father of pneumatic tires, because the first pneumatic tire in the world was invented by Andre Michelin and edouard michelin brothers in 1890.
After the radial tire dominated for 50 years, many people believe that the "run-flat" explosion-proof tire will be the protagonist of the next tire revolution! In fact, the idea of "anti-riot tires" appeared as early as 1983. The protagonist this time is Goodyear, but it has not been popularized because of the limited technology and the need to match expensive special wheels. In the mid-1990s, Goodyear engineers first introduced innovative products with flat but rigid tire walls, which can enable vehicles with zero tire pressure to continue driving for 200 kilometers at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour after a tire burst. 1996, Michelin introduced a riot-proof tire product named "PVA".
With more and more choices in the market, more and more automobile manufacturers began to list riot tires as standard configuration, and naturally the spare tire was removed.
When the spare tire is removed to reduce the weight of the vehicle, the saved fuel consumption cost is gradually close to the extra cost of replacing the explosion-proof tire, and the attraction of the explosion-proof tire is increasing day by day.
On June 5438+1early October, 2005, Michelin announced the research and development plan of "Tweel" tire in Detroit. If this scheme can be widely accepted by the market, the future tire life will be three times that of the existing products, and it will never need to be inflated because there is no air inside. With the name of the Tweel project (tires and wheels), we can easily infer the concept of "integrated wheels" that he conveyed: the rims and tires of traditional wheels will be integrated in the future. Tweel tire has two layers of solid rubber without air, and the inflation part of traditional tire is to absorb the vibration from the road surface. In Tweel tires, this task is accomplished by polymer spokes made of polyurethane.