FRIEZE ART FAIR NEW YORK 2012
MILAN 2012: SALONE INTERNAZIONALE DEL MOBILE
MILAN 2012: SATELLITE EXHIBITIONS
MILAN 2012: BRERA DESIGN DISTRICT
Remember Ron Arad's spring steel wheel bicycle? Wisconsin-based Resilient Technologies, a company that develops "advanced mobility products," makes something similar for motor vehicles: The Non-Pneumatic Tire.
But while Arad's bike wheels are designed to turn heads, the NPT is designed to survive military conflicts; the U.S. Army Research Laboratory is current testing them out on Humvees, as "the NPT will not go flat if shot or hit by shrapnel from a roadside bomb."
While there's no public footage of the NPT under attack, here's what the wheel looks like in milder testing:
And here's what it looks like on a civilian vehicle:
Lastly, here's a similar concept—I haven't been able to determine if this last one is made by Resilient Technologies or a competitor—in a more heavy-duty application:
Comments
Similar to Michelins 'Tweel' from a few years back: http://www.gizmag.com/go/3603/
What is this tech like at higher speeds?
How about in mud and sand? Brings new meaning to "you've got mud in your tires"
I would like to see a long distance highway test, seems a more likely problem would be the tread detaching at excessive speed rather than slow rock crawling.
Good idea. But, is it going to be bumpy when we stop? we need solution for the Inertia's Impact.
Open sidewall design is probably necessary at this point for testing and engineering development. Final product would most likely have integral sidewalls, but perhaps with a valve designed to regulate internal pressure / vacuum resulting from environmental and mechanical temperature and humidity effects. I don't see these as replacing conventional pneumatic tires for road vehicles, but they certainly have great potential in hostile environments.
What would the advantage to sidewalls be?