Tyre

A tyre is a device covering the circumference of a wheel. It is

an essential part of most ground vehicles and is used to dampen
the oscillations caused by irregularities in the road surface, to
protect the wheel from wear and tear as well as to provide a
high-friction bond between the car and the road to improve
acceleration and handling. Today most tyres, especially those
Firestone tyre
fitted to motor vehicles, are manufactured from synthetic
rubber; however other materials such as steel may be used.

History
For most of history wheels had very little in the way of shock absorption and journeys
were very bumpy and uncomfortable. The modern tyre came about in stages in the 19th
century.

In 1844, Charles Goodyear invented vulcanization, the process that would later be used to
produce cured rubber tyres.

John Boyd Dunlop, a Scottish veterinary surgeon working in Belfast, Ireland, is mainly
recognized as the father of the modern tyre, although he was not the first to come up with
the idea. In 1845 the first pneumatic (inflatable) tyre was patented by fellow Scotsman,
the engineer Robert William Thomson, born in Stonehaven, Scotland, as the Aerial
Wheel. This invention consisted of a canvas inner tube surrounded by a leather outer
tyre. The tyre gave a good ride, but there were so many manufacturing and fitting
problems that the idea had to be abandoned. John Dunlop re-invented the tyre for his ten
year old son's tricycle in 1887 and was awarded a patent for his tyre in 1888 (rescinded
1890). Dunlop's tyre had a modified leather hosepipe as an inner tube and rubber treads.
It wasn't long before rubber inner tubes were invented.

Because neither bicycles nor automobiles had been invented when Thomson produced his
tyre, that tyre was only applied to horse drawn carriages. By Dunlop's time, the bicycle
had been fully developed (see Rover) and it proved a far more suitable application for
pneumatic tyres. Pneumatic tyres were first installed on aircraft in 1906.

Dunlop partnered with William Harvey du Cros to form a company which later became
the Dunlop Rubber Company to produce his invention. The invention quickly caught on
for bicycles and was later adapted for use on cars. Dunlop is now a subsidiary of the
Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Company.

The radial tyre was invented by Michelin, a French company, in 1946, but did not see
wide use in the United States, the largest market at that time, until the 1970s. This type of
tyre uses parallel carcass plies for the sidewalls and crossed belts for the crown of the
tyre. All modern car tyres are now radial. In 2005, Michelin was reported to be
attempting to develop a tyre and wheel combination, the Tweel, which does not use air.

Nomenclature
The outer perimeter of the tyre, often called the crown, has various designs of jagged
shaped grooves in it, known as the tread. These grooves are especially useful during
weather with rain (or snow). The water from the rain would be compressed into the
grooves by the vehicle's weight, providing better traction in the tyre to road contact.
Without such grooves, a layer or film of water would form between the wet roads and the
tyre surface, which would cause hydroplaning, substantially reducing traction. However,
if the road is dry, they actually reduce grip since they reduce the contact area, hence why
'slicks' are used in motor racing. Traction is especially important for good braking. The
depth of these grooves essentially constitutes the tread depth at any time during the
lifetime of the car. When the tread on the outer perimeter of the tyre inevitably wears
away from use, reducing the tread depth, the tyre should be replaced. The sidewalls are
the sections of the tyre which are between the crown and the inner circular edges of the
tyre contacting the rim. To avoid tearing at these inner edges, particularly when the tyre is
being mounted, there are a number of concentric steel wires buried inside the rubber at
both inner edges of the tyre. This inner rim is called the bead.

Pneumatic tyres generally have reinforcing threads in them; based on the orientation of
the threads, they are classified as bias-ply/cross ply or radial. Tyres with radial yarns
(known as radial tyres) are standard for almost all modern automobiles.

Tyre types
Pneumatic tyres

Air-filled tyres are known as pneumatic tyres, and these are the type in almost universal
use today. Pneumatic tyres are made of a flexible elastic material such as rubber with
reinforcing threads/wires inside the elastic material. The air compresses as the wheel goes
over a bump and acts as a shock absorber. Tyres are inflated through a valve, typically a
Schrader valve on automobiles and most bicycle tyres, or a Presta valve on high
performance bicycles. Attempts have been made to make various types of solid tyre but
none has so far met with much success. The air in conventional pneumatic tyres acts as a
near constant rate spring because the decrease in the tyre's volume as the tyre compresses
over a bump is minimal. "Airless" tyres usually employ a type of foam or sponge like
construction which consists of a large number of small air filled cells. As a result
compression is localised within the tyre and the effective spring rate rises sharply as the
tyre compresses. The result is a tyre which is less forgiving, particularly with regards to
sharp transient bumps and provides poor ride and handling characteristics. The "steering
feel" of such tyres is also different from that of pneumatic tyres, as their solidity does not
allow the amount of torsion that exists in the carcass of a pneumatic tyre under steering
forces, and the resultant sensory feedback through the steering apparatus; as a result they
feel as if they are pivoting on bearings at the contact point. They are more popular for
bicycles than for automobiles, which have tyres which are much more robust and immune
to puncture.

The common motor vehicle tyre is mounted around a steel or aluminium alloy wheel at
service stations or repair shops for vehicles using a special tyre mounting apparatus while
the wheel is off the vehicle. After mounting, the tyre is inflated (pressurized) with air
through the valve stem to manufacturer's specified pressure, which is more than
atmospheric pressure. The wheel and tyre assembly are then attached to the vehicle
through a number of holes in the wheel using lug nuts. Because tyres are often not made
with perfectly even mass all around the tyre, a special tyre-balancing apparatus at a
repair shop spins the wheel with the tyre to determine where small weights should be
attached to the outer edge of the rim to balance out the wheel. Such tyre balancing with
these kinds of weights avoids vibration when the vehicle is driven at higher speeds.

With the introduction of radial tyres, however, it was found that some vibrations could
not be cured by adding balance weights. This was because the structure and manufacture
of a radial tyre lends itself to the problems of variation in stiffness around the tyre. These
variations are measured as Radial Force Variation and Lateral Force Variation, which are
measured on a Force Variation Machine at the end of the manufacturing process. Tyres
outside the specified limits for RFV and LFV are rejected. This is known in general
throughout the industry as Tyre Uniformity.

Automobile and truck tyres

New automotive tyres now also have ratings for traction, tread wear, and temperature
resistance (collectively known as UTQG ratings); as well as speed and load ratings.

Some tread designs are unidirectional and the tyre has a rotation direction indicated by an
arrow showing which way the tyre should rotate when the vehicle is moving forwards. It
is important not to put a 'clockwise' tyre on the left hand side of the car or a 'counter-
clockwise' tyre on the right side. Tyre rotation moves tyres between the different wheels
of the vehicle as front and back axles carry different loads and thus the tyres wear
differently.

Tyre tread gauges are small rulers designed to be inserted into tyre treads to measure the
remaining tread depth. Local legislation may specify minimum tread depths, typically
between 1/8" (3.2 mm) and 1/32" (0.8 mm). Wear bars may be designed into the tyre
tread to indicate when it is time to replace the tyre. Essentially, part of the tyre tread is
shallower than the rest and will show when the tyre is worn down to that level.

There is currently an attempt to reinforce the tyre with nanomaterial. This is likely to
increase the tyre life, but may turn out to be a bad idea if the worn out part of nanocarbon
deposited on the roads is washed off and ends up in the food chain.

Types of automobile tyres

• Performance (and racing) tyres
o Performance tyres tend to be designed for use at higher speeds. They often
have a softer rubber compound for improved traction, especially on high
speed cornering. The trade off of this softer rubber is a lower tread wear
rating.
o Performance street tyres sometimes sacrifice wet weather handling by
having shallower water channels to provide more actual rubber treat
surface area for dry weather performance; the ability to provide both high
levels of performance on both wet and dry pavement varies widely
between manufacturer and even tyre models of the same manufacturer,
and is a highly active area for research and development, as well as
marketing.
o The ultimate variant of performance tyre has no tread pattern at all and is
called a slick tyre. Slick tyres are not legal for use on public roads in most
jurisdictions due to their extremely poor wet weather characteristics, but
cheater slicks which circumvent the literal wording of the law, if not the
intent, are available.
o R compound tyres, similar to cheater slicks, are technically approved by
the DOT as street legal, but are in fact designed for racing, with minimal
tread and ultra soft rubber. They can typically be distinguished by very
low tread wear rating.
o The highest performance tyres actually designed to be driven on the street
are often called summer or three-season tyres, since they are optimized for
ultimate warm weather wet and dry performance at the expense of snow
and ice traction; they therefore must be replaced with winter or all-season
tyres, if the vehicle is to be driven much in the winter.

• Winter (snow and ice) tyres

o Winter tyres are designed to provide improved performance under winter
conditions compared to tyres made for use in summer. The rubber
compound used in the tread of the tyre is usually softer than that used in
tyres for summer conditions, so providing better grip on ice and snow, but
wearing more quickly at higher temperatures. Winter tyres often have fine
grooves and sipping in the tread patterns that are designed to grip any
unevenness on ice. Winter tyres are usually removed for storage in the
spring, because the rubber compound becomes too soft in warm weather
resulting in a reduced tyre life.
o According to California Vehicle Code Section 558, "A 'Snow-tread tyre' is
a tyre which has a relatively deep and aggressive tread pattern compared
with conventional passenger tread pattern".
 o Dedicated winter tyres will bear the "Mountain/Snowflake Pictograph" if
designated as a winter/snow tyre by the American Society for Testing &
Materials. Winter tyres will typically also carry the designation MS, M/S,
M+S, M&S, or the words MUD AND SNOW (but see All-season tyres,
below)
o Many winter tyres are designed to be studded for additional traction on icy
roads. The studs also roughen the ice, so providing better friction between
the ice and the soft rubber in winter tyres. Use of studs is regulated in most
countries, and even prohibited in some countries due to the increased road
wear caused by studs.
o Other winter tyres rely on factors other than studding for traction on ice,
e.g. highly porous or hydrophilic rubber which adheres to the wet film on
the ice surface.
o Some jurisdictions may from time to time require snow tyres or traction
aids (e.g. tyre chains) on vehicles driven in certain areas during extreme
conditions.
• All-season tyres
o These are an attempt to make a tyre that will be a compromise between a
tyre developed for use on dry and wet roads during summer, and a tyre
developed for use under winter conditions, when there is snow and ice on
the road. However, the type of rubber and the tread pattern best suited for
use under summer conditions cannot, for technical reasons, give good
performance on snow and ice. The all-season tyre is therefore a
compromise, and is neither an excellent summer tyre, nor an excellent
winter tyre. They have, however, become almost ubiquitous as original
and replacement equipment on automobiles marketed in the United States,
due to their convenience and their adequate performance in most
situations.
o All-Season tyres are also marked for mud and snow (e.g. M+S, M&S, etc.)
the same as winter tyres. However, due to the compromise with
performance during summer, winter performance is usually not
comparable with a winter tyre.
• Run flat tyres
• All-terrain tyres
o All-terrain tyres are typically used on SUVs and light trucks. These tyres
often have stiffer sidewalls for greater resistance against puncture when
travelling off-road; the tread pattern offers wider spacing than all-season
tyres to evacuate mud from the tread.
o Within the all-terrain category, many of the tyres available are designed
primarily for on-road use, particularly all-terrain tyres that are originally
sold with the vehicle.
• Mud tyres
o Mud terrain tyres are characterized by large, chunky tread patterns
designed to bite into muddy surfaces and provide grip. The large open
design also allows mud to clear more quickly from between the lugs.
 o Mud terrain tyres also tend to be wider than other tyres, to spread the
weight of the vehicle over a greater contact patch to prevent the vehicle
from sinking too deep into the mud.
o Depending on the composition and tread pattern, many mud terrain tyres
are not well suited to on-road use. They can be noisy at highway speeds,
and due to the open tread design, they have less of a contact area with the
road, limiting traction. The large lugs on mud tyres tend to tear and chip
on roads, because they are made from hard rubber compounds that do not
bend easily.
o Mud tyres are also marked for mud and snow (e.g. M+S, M&S, etc.) the
same as winter tyres.

Tyre manufacturing & maintenance

Some tyre manufacturing companies

• Bridgestone
o Firestone
• Continental
• Cooper
• Dunlop
• Goodyear
• Kelly Springfield Tyre and Rubber Company
• Kumho
• Michelin
• MRF Tyres
o B.F. Goodrich
o Uniroyal
o Pirelli
• Nokian Tyres
• Toyo
• Yokohama

Maintenance of automobile tyres

Friction from moving contact with the road causes the tread on the outer perimeter of the
tyre to eventually wear away. When the tyre tread becomes too shallow, the tyre is worn
out and should be replaced. The same tyre rims can usually be used throughout the
lifetime of the car. Uneven or accelerated tyre wear can be caused by bad wheel
alignment. More wear on a tyre facing the outside or the inside of a car is often a sign of
bad wheel alignment. When the tread is worn away completely and especially when the
wear on the outer rubber exposes the reinforcing threads inside them, the tyre is said to be
bald. A bald tyre should be replaced as soon as possible. Sometimes tyres with worn tread
are recapped; i.e. a new layer of rubber with grooves is bonded onto the outer perimeter
of a worn tyre. Because this bonding may occasionally come loose on the tyre, new tyres
are superior to recapped tyres.

Sometimes a pneumatic tyre gets a hole or a leak through which the air inside leaks out
resulting in a flat tyre, a condition which must be fixed before the car can be driven
further safely. A leak may be slow in a few cases, such as is sometimes observed when
the seal between the rim and tyre edge is not perfect. Many leaks in flat tyres, though, are
caused by nails, screws, caltrops, broken glass or other sharp objects puncturing the
rubber tyre wall. If the hole is small and not elongated, the tyre can often be repaired by
using plugs from a tyre repair kit. A leak in a tyre can often be found by submerging the
tyre, pressurized with air, under water to see where air bubbles come out. If submerging a
tyre underwater is not possible, the leak can be searched for by covering the pressurized
tyre surface with a soapy solution to see where leaking air forms soap bubbles. A
puncturing object, such as a nail or a screw, can be pulled out using pliers. Then a plug
coated with a semi-liquid form of rubber can be inserted into the hole with a special tool.
The rubber covering the plug solidifies rather quickly, after which the protruding ends of
the plug can be cut off, the tyre can be refilled with air to the appropriate pressure, and
the repaired wheel replaced on the vehicle. Patches covering a hole have been glued or
rubber-cemented to the interior surface of a tyre also, particularly if a hole is too
elongated for a simple plug. Tyre repair with such patches requires the tyre to be taken off
the rim and then remounted after the patch is applied. Sometimes a more serious rupture
of the tyre material occurs resulting in a blow-out. The damaged tyre typically must be
replaced after that. A leaking valve stem may occasionally be the cause of a leak,
necessitating valve stem replacement. This replacement means the tyre will have to be
taken off the rim and remounted after the valve replacement. Occasionally, other types of
damage require replacement of a tyre.

Vehicles typically carry a spare tyre, already mounted on a rim, to be used in case a flat
tyre or blow-out occurs. These days, most spare tyres (sometimes called "doughnuts") for
cars are smaller than normal tyres (to save on trunk space, gas mileage, and cost) and
should not be driven very far before replacement with a full-size tyre. Years ago, full-size
or conventional spare tyres were used. A few modern vehicle models may use
conventional spare tyres also. Jacks and tyre irons for emergency replacement of a flat
tyre with a spare tyre are included when buying a new car. Not included, but sometimes
available separately, are hand or foot pumps for filling a tyre with air by the vehicle
owner. Cans of pressurized "gas" can sometimes be bought separately for convenient
emergency refill of a tyre.

Alternatively, many modern cars and trucks are equipped with run flat tyres that may be
driven with a puncture - or perhaps are even self-repairing for moderate sized holes.

Front tyres, especially on front wheel drive vehicles, have a tendency to wear out more
quickly than rear tyres. Routine maintenance including tyre rotation, exchanging the front
and rear tyres with each other, is often done periodically to even out tyre wear. There are
simple hand-held tyre-pressure gauges which can be temporarily attached to the valve
stem to check a tyre's interior air pressure. Because of slow leaks or changes in weather
or other conditions, tyre pressure may occasionally have to be adjusted, usually by
refilling through the valve stem with some pressurized air which is often available at
service stations.

Other use and recycling

Used tyres, with too much wear to be safe on vehicles or cannot be repaired punctures,
are among the largest and most problematic sources of waste, due to the large volume
produced and their durability. Municipal trash haulers will usually not accept them. Most
heavily populated areas contain specific dumps where huge piles of literally millions of
discarded tyres are kept, often in a constant state of legal antagonism with the municipal
authorities. Although tyres themselves are not considered hazardous waste, these dumps
sometimes catch fire and may burn for months before they can finally be extinguished,
creating enormous volumes of toxic air pollution, oil, and heavy metals. Some such fires
have become Superfund cleanup sites.

Ironically, those same characteristics which make waste tyres such a problem also make
them one of the most re-used waste materials, as the rubber is very resilient and can be
reused in other products; it also yields much energy when burned under controlled
conditions.

Recapped tyres used to be very common, particularly in the trucking industry; the rubber
tread of a tyre would wear off long before the carcass, consisting of the fabric plies,
sidewalls, and beads, was no longer usable, and therefore good carcasses were simply
overlaid with another tread and returned to service. Since the tread is attached in the same
way as with a new carcass, such a tyre is as reliable as a new one; in fact usually more so,
since each individual used carcass is inspected, which is not the case when constructing
new tyres. With the advances in tyre technology leading to longer tread life and the
changes in the relative economics of raw materials and labour, this is no longer
economically advantageous for automobile tyres.

While salvaged tyres make cheap toys which can be used variously for pets, animals in
captivity or human children, e.g. the ubiquitous "tyre swing", they can also be
deliberately torn apart to re-use the rubber. According to the US Environmental
Protection Agency, every year Americans discard approximately 290 million automobile
and truck used tyres. Since 1989, when only 10 percent of scrap tyres were recycled or
reused, the United States significantly increased its tyre reclamation efforts to slightly
more than 80 percent. In 2003, tyre reclamation looked like this:

• 130 million were used as fuel

• 56 million were recycled or used in civil engineering projects
• 27.5 million were recycled into other products or projects; for example, rubber
lumber, stall mats for horses, roof pads, sports mats, shower tiles, truck bed mats,
and commercial flooring
• 12 million were ground up and used in rubber-modified asphalt for roads and
athletic tracks
 • 9 million were sent to other countries, where they are used to make retreads

In addition to the 290 million scrap tyres, 16.5 million used tyres in the US are given new
temporary life as retreads.

Because of safety issues, new tyres must be manufactured primarily from virgin rubber,
however, with recycled rubber making up only 5 to 15 percent of the finished product.

Furthermore tyre strips are used as a severe instrument for punitive flagellation, which
leaves dark bruises.