Filed under: Ethanol
Self inflating tires: where the technology is today
Wouldn't be great if you never had to pump up your tires again? Keeping your tires properly inflated improves your gas mileage; obviously a good thing for the environment. There are technological solutions to underinflated tires on the market: There's TMPS, and Onstar can alert you when your tire pressure is low. Devices that actually do the re-inflating for you do exist but mostly in the trucking industry. The systems cost too much to install in smaller cars, but companies are working on bringing those costs down.
This 2005 article from Sandia National Laboratories talks about Dale Petty's automatic tire inflating system. Dale's system uses wheel-mounted high pressure nitrogen bottles. The use of nitrogen bottles could really keep the costs low for an automatic system. BTW, the systems I mentioned don't re-inflate a punctured tire like the Bond movie below the fold. You may want to look into run-flat tires for a solution to that problem.
Related:
[Source: Sandia National Laboratories]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Peter 5:46PM (9/24/2007)
That looks like a heck of a lot of unsprung weight just to keep from having to check your tires once in a while. Plus it's not exactly aesthetically pleasing.
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Lascelles Linton 5:59PM (9/24/2007)
Peter, It could probably be hidden by a hub cap or put into the hub itself. I would be cool if it were part of the tire itself.
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detroit9000 6:01PM (9/24/2007)
In Detroit, you'll spend months trying to take $0.25 out of a part.
In other words, to someone who works in Detroit, this article could be summarized as follows:
"Magic is fun - cars soon will fly!"
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rgseidl 8:56PM (9/24/2007)
A moderately effective tire pressure monitoring system can be implemented very cheaply as an addition to the existing ABS control software. Tires normally don't lose a lot of air quickly, so a warning light telling you to fill up on air at the next gas station should be good enough.
The problem is, air pressure gages at most gas stations are not calibrated and, tires should be inflated when cold. Many drivers don't know that.
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Lascelles Linton 1:27PM (9/25/2007)
Rgseidl, people are busy and cars are complicated. You are right but I think the modern car needs to do more for the driver.
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steven 4:11PM (9/25/2007)
@1 In addition, I would guess that compensating for the reduction in performance due to said unsprung weight (you gotta get that mass 'a spinnin') as well as the overall increase mass of the vehicle would MORE than offset any fuel savings you could get from this system. This one looks like it would be great fun in an accident as well. High pressure canister + side impact = high speed shrapnel.
I have seen more mechanically inclined systems this week on some big trucks, but I think they are using the available air supply from the brake system as a source.
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