Michelin Tweel tires won't use air

Michelin thinks it may have discovered the future of tires with its Tweel technology, which doesn't use air and therefore will never go flat.


The flexible spokes are fused with a flexible wheel that deforms to absorb shock and rebound with ''unimaginable ease,'' says Michelin.

With the air needed by conventional tires, says Terry Gettys, president of the Michelin Americas Research and Development Center, Tweel still delivers pneumatic-like performance in weight-carrying capacity, ride comfort, and the ability to ''envelope'' road hazards.

Michelin will provide more details of the non-pneumatic Tweel technology at the Detroit auto show next week, but is promoting its use by claiming that it ''has the potential to transform the automotive, military, construction and personal mobility industries in the years ahead.''

According to Gettys ''Major revolutions in mobility may come along only once in a hundred years. But a new century has dawned and Tweel has proven its potential to transform mobility. Tweel enables us to reach levels of performance that quite simply aren't possible with today's conventional pneumatic technology."

Michelin has also found that it can tune each Tweel tire's performance independently, which Gettys notes is a significant change from conventional tires.

Photo: Michelin

''This means that vertical stiffness -- which primarily affects ride comfort -- and lateral stiffness -- which affects handling and cornering -- can both be optimized, pushing the performance envelope in these applications and enabling new performances not possible for current inflated tires,'' says Gettys.

The Tweel prototype is within five percent of the rolling resistance and mass levels of current pneumatic tires, Gettys explains, and that translates to within one percent of the fuel economy of the standard production application.

Additionally, Michelin has increased the lateral stiffness by a factor of five, making the prototype unusually responsive in its handling.

Stay tuned for more information on the Tweel tire technology as it becomes available.