Posted on 02/15/2007 10:40:16 AM PST by Red Badger
Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. (YRC)—the seventh-largest tire manufacturer in the world—has developed a process that combines citrus oil with natural rubber to form a new compound it calls Super Nanopower Rubber (SNR). The major component of citrus oil is d-limonene.
The process reduces the use of petroleum products in tires by 80% and is part of YRC’s global EcoMotion environmental program. The first SNR product is the Decibel Super E-Spec, an all-new consumer passenger tire.
The fuel-saving E-Spec tire features an air permeation suppression film, a polymer lining designed to reduce air leakage from the tire, therby helping to maintain appropriate inflation levels.
Underinflated tires consume more power, thus using more fuel. The E-Spec is also a lot lighter and conserves gasoline by reducing rolling resistance by 18 percent. Low rolling resistance tires improve fuel efficiency by minimizing the energy wasted (as heat) as the tire rolls down the road. —Jim MacMaster, executive vice president, Business Division, of Yokohama Tire Corporation
The E-Spec tire featuring the SNR compound will be available in Japan later in the year, but no date has been determined for release in the US market.
The recent freezes in Florida and California have caused the prices of tires to inflate!
Not necessarily. A cylindrical or spherical body rolling on a surface is slightly flattened at the contact points, because of the load carried by the rolling body. This flattening is not fixed at one point with respect to the rolling body, but moves in a direction opposite to the direction of spin of the body. This frequent distortion, which causes internal friction within the material of the body, is the reason for the resistance.
Now a body without rolling resistance would ideally be perfectly round in its cross section, when rolling, or would have zero internal friction within the material of the body, as it deforms. So if the case is the former, then yes, there will be less area of contact with the surface, possibly increasing the rolling body's tendency to skid. In the latter case, this is not neccessarily so.
Yep, Buna was invented for that exact reason.
NASCAR and tire history article:
http://insiderracingnews.com/pk050303.html
I was watching wheels TV on spike a few months back where they test rode some.
I guess the biggest problem currently is they are very very very noisy.
Add rocks and mud to the equation, as you pointed out, I'd say they still have some work to do.
But I must say, I thought they were pretty cool looking especially when the car was in motion, it looked like it was floating.
You should see the mascot for Kumho.
'bout time new technology to make countries less oil-dependent comes to the surface.
Make the tires out of concrete. Put the rubber on the road
The only problem with a woman like that is 20 minutes later you want to do it again.
Doesn't that mostly come from the peel though? I thought it was the waste that they used to get orange oil from, not the fruit.
Overinflation looks good, steers easy, rides lumpy.
Super nanopower?
Isn't there a Japanese cartoon where the characters shout that before turning into crime fighting toasters or something?
Put these on your Prius and not only travel in silence but leave a fresh lemony scent.
Would it impair a tire's ability to stop a moving vehicle if a tire were able to remain "perfectly round"?
Steel wheels on steel rails...
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