Filling tires with nitrogen debated

An increasing number of auto-repair shops and car dealerships are charging customers $20 to $50 to fill their tires with nitrogen.

Their pitch is that pure nitrogen maintains better tire pressure, which gives you better gas mileage, longer wear and a smoother and safer ride.

The idea of riding on nitrogen isn't new. It's been done for years in race cars, commercial airplanes and long-distance trucks.

More recently, a number of car dealerships across the country are using it in new car tires -- basically, a luxury "extra" to impress buyers.

The thinking is that nitrogen has larger molecules, which prevent it from seeping out of the tire as quickly as air and thereby maintain more stable pressure.

Tires filled with regular air tend to fluctuate in pressure level -- increasing in summer and decreasing during the cold season.

Tire pressure is vital. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says maintaining the proper pressure can improve gas mileage by almost 3 percent.

The government also estimates that underinflated tires cost the nation about 2 million gallons of gas every day. Low tire pressure can cause wheels to lose traction, making the car work harder and burn more fuel.

But is filling your tires with nitrogen really a good solution?

"This is still a heavily debated issue," said Steve Phillips, AAA Carolinas' traffic-safety manager. Some Goodyear and Michelin experts have reported that tires lose pressure from the areas around the valves and rims whether they are filled with air or nitrogen, Phillips said.

"So there is no guarantee that you are going to get better pressure," he said.

Phillips worries about what he calls the "fill-it-and-forget-it" mentality.

"Our fear is that people will put nitrogen in their tires and never check them again," he said. "They still have to check for tread [wear] and punctures."

According to a survey by Uniroyal Tire, nearly 50 percent of Americans say they check their tires once a month.

Source: Star-Telegram, 11/10/07

Yokahama to plant trees, help environment

The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. will hold a tree-planting ceremony on Nov. 11 at its Hiratsuka, Japan, factory as part of its "Yokohama Forever Forest" project -- a long-term project being carried out as part of the Yokohama Rubber Group's environmental preservation activities.

Local residents and employees of the Yokohama Rubber Group and their families -- about 3,500 people -- will plant 30,000 trees that day.

The company points out that if forests are created around factories and similar facilities, they will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They also will contribute in other respects, including safety and recreation.

Over the coming 10 years, the Hiratsuka factory, six other Japanese plants and 11 plants at overseas affiliates will plant a total of 500,000 trees, creating about about 25 acres of new forests.

Professor Emeritus Akira Miyawaki of Yokohama National University will supervise the planting, which will be followed by various events including a discussion on stage between Tadashi Tateuchi, a noted automotive journalist, and Ukyo Katayama, a former F1 driver.

Dr. Akira Miyawaki is a biologist known for the concept of "potential natural vegetation," which is vegetation that is most suitable to the native area and habitat, supported by the existing conditions of location in the absence of any human intervention.

He has guided more than 1,500 tree-planting efforts both domestically and abroad, having thus helped in the planting of 30 million trees.

Source: Modern Tire Dealer, 11/05/07

Dunlop Falken Tyres Develops Tire 97% Made of Non-Petroleum Natural Materials

Dunlop Falken Tires Ltd (head office: Tokyo) of the Sumitomo Rubber Group unveiled "ENASAVE 97" at the 40th Tokyo Motor Show 2007. It is made of non-petroleum natural materials by 97%.

The tires will be released in May 2008, according to the company. The amount of petro-related materials was drastically reduced by using materials other than synthetic rubber for side walls and the inner liner.

The inner liner is a rubber sheet stuck on the inner surface of tires. It prevents the air leaking from the tire. The rubber sheet needs to be airtight. It was difficult to replace synthetic rubber with natural rubber, which is less airtight.

Because natural rubber has a molecular structure without branches on main chains, the air leaks through the material easily. The company paid attention to this point and improved airtightness of natural rubber by applying branches of epoxy radicals on its main chains.

The side walls on the sides of tires repeat distortion responding to the revolution of tires. This requires tires to be resistant to bending. Conventional material was a mixture of synthetic rubber and natural rubber, where islands of synthetic rubber are floating in the ocean of natural rubber. The islands of synthetic rubber prevented the cracks in the natural rubber ocean, realizing high resistance against bending.

If the material is replaced with natural rubber, generated cracks are likely to extend because it does not have islands. To solve this problem, the company created islands made of natural rubber and modified rubber. However, the rubbers do not blend easily. As a solution, the company blended vegetable oil and devised a mixing method.

The tread rubber is required to keep the rolling resistance low while maintaining high grip performance. The company developed a plant-derived modifier that improves flexibility of rubber. As a result, the company succeeded in creating a tire with high grip performance and low rolling resistance.

The rolling resistance is approximately 35% of "EC201," one of the general tires that contain synthetic rubber by more than 50%. The tire improves the fuel efficiency by approximately 7%, according to the company.

By increasing the rate of non-petroleum natural materials to 97%, CO2 emission during manufacturing of tires will be reduced by 17% compared with EC201. In addition, because 57% of the materials used are biomass, which absorbs CO2 in the process of growing, CO2 emission at the time of disposal will be reduced by 94% compared with tires made of petro-related materials.

Source: Tech-On, 10/26/07

Space Age inventions you probably use

When you buy a new set of tires, the old ones have to go somewhere, right? Most of them end up in huge, flammable tire dumps, which may hold millions of old tires, each one containing about a quart of oil in the rubber. If a dump catches fire, however, it can burn with a thick, toxic smoke for weeks on end.

But today, old tires are being put to good use. NASA's experience in fuel-related cryogenics helped develop processes to freeze the tires to below -200 degrees Fahrenheit so that they crumble, separating the rubber from other materials and producing what's called "crumb."

This waste is recycled into several new products, including an ingredient used to pave highways, which means your new radial tires may someday be rolling over your old ones.

Source: CNN

Do you need snow tires?

You can't beat winter tires for traction in snow and ice, but not everyone needs them, said Jennifer Stockburger, senior automotive engineer for Consumer Reports in Yonkers. Stockburger, who tests tires for Consumer Reports, talked to The Journal News about how winter tires have changed and who should buy them.

Q: What factors determine whether you need snow tires?

A: If you have a job or a responsibility that requires that you can't wait until roads are cleared, then you cannot beat the security of winter tires. They really are called winter tires now because of the temperature issue. You can't beat them for security in snow and ice.

Q: You mentioned that temperature is a factor.

A: This is where things have changed. You think about when we were kids. What they called snow tires were very luggy (with) open-tread patterns, and that was what gave them the ability to bite through snow. Today's winter tire is as much about the rubber compound as it is about the tread pattern. ... They have rubber compounds that are engineered so that when temperatures drop, the rubber stays pliable and provides better grip even on ice, whereas an all-season tire gets very stiff in very cold temperatures.

Q: How else are tires changing?

A: As cars are getting more and more capable (with) more horsepower ... the trend in original tires on cars is toward more performance-oriented tires. You can't have all this horsepower and no grip. (While performance tires have) more grip in wet and dry conditions, they give up winter traction. People are surprised sometimes. They'll say, 'Well, my old Accord was really good in the snow, but my new Accord all of a sudden isn't so great.'

Q: Often in winter, the roads are wet rather than snowy. In that instance, could an all-season tire be preferable to a winter tire?

A: Right. And that's where you as the driver need to make a determination. If you're typically leaving in the middle of the day when the sun comes out and you're on wet roads more than snow-covered or ice-covered, then an all-season's probably fine for you.

Q: What are the differences among winter tires?

A: Now there are performance winter tires as well. If you have a car like a BMW 5 Series, you have fairly grippy, very responsive tires to begin with. Now, you can buy ... performance winter models that help you maintain some of that while still giving you additional traction in snow and ice.

Q: How long do winter tires last?

A: Because they're more pliable, they will wear more quickly. ... It's one of the reasons why we definitely say you should take them off in the spring. If you do that, you can expect three or four seasons out of a set of winter tires.

Q: Some people get just two for the front wheels. Is that a good idea?

A: Never, and the reason is, you'll create an imbalance in handling. You never want one axle to be grippier than the other. ... Each tire has a brake on it. (If the front tires grip better than the rear) then your rear will tend to slide out - you'll spin out.

Source: Journal News, 10/7/07

TiroGage takes car maintenance pressure off consumers

What's Happening

* Change the oil, fill the fluids, check the tires — car maintenance can be high-maintenance and time-consuming (and realistically, how many people actually check the pressure in their tires the recommended once a month)? The TiroGage makes it a bit easier.
* Attached to the tire's valve system and left in place, the quarter-size dial constantly monitors and displays tire pressure at a glance (Crave.CNET.com 8.22.07). Air can be added or released through the device, and the tire can even be changed without removing it.
* As of September 2007, TiroGage is available for commercial trucks and large RVs ($25 per unit). It will be produced for cars, motorcycles and bikes in 2008.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

* Proper and preventive car maintenance is crucial to a car’s longevity, performance and road safety. Inexpensive, user-friendly, DIY products that take some pressure off the consumer will be especially embraced by time-starved and Control FreakSM consumers and women.

Source: Iconoculture, 9/26/07

Vredestein introduces new all-season tire -- with a twist

The latest all-season tire from Vredestein Tyres North America Inc. is available to tire dealers -- and it has run-flat capability.

The new Vredestein Quatrac 3 features the following:

* an asymmetrical, non-directional tread pattern. The outermost part of the tread is designed for summer conditions. "Due to the lower air ratio and limited number of layers, the Quatrac 3 has more rubber and less air, proportionately speaking, and extremely stiff tread blocks," says the company. "This ensures optimum contact with the road surface."

The inner section of the tread has a very open tread structure with undulating grooves that provide additional traction in winter conditions. Self-cleaning properties help prevent snow from attaching itself to the tread.

* efficient water dispersion. The summer and winter sections of the Quatrac 3 are visually separated from one another by three distinct grooves centrally placed in the longitudinal direction of the tire. The design also includes lateral grooves. The combination of the two sets of grooves is responsible for the rapid dispersion of large volumes of water on a wet surface, which minimizes the risk of hyrdoplaning.

* PAC-free rubber. The new all-season rubber compound is engineered without oils containing environment-unfriendly polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs).

* low noise production. The tire meets the latest European Union directives, part of statutory environmental standards aimed at the further reduction of noise levels produced by tires.

"The stepped longitudinal groove and the equal distribution of surface pressure are the key components of the tire responsible for reducing noise levels," says Vredestein.

* snowflake symbol. The Quatrac 3 complies with all qualifications and criteria for officially being recognized as a winter tire. (Winter tires are awarded the snowflake symbol when they successfully complete an obligatory braking test on a snow-covered surface.)

The Vredestein Quatrac 3 is available in nine V-rated sizes, including two run-flat sizes: 195/65R15, 195/60R15, 205/60R15, 205/55R16, 215/55R16 (XL), 225/55R16, 225/45R17 (XL), 195/55RF16 and 205/55RF16.

The Quatrac 3 RunFlat features an additional reinforcement (insert) in the tire's sidewall. The bead construction also has been strengthened to ensure that the tire remains firmly around the rim in the event of a loss of pressure. "The level of comfort remains high," adds the company.

Source: Modern Tire Dealer, 9/20/07