1 pointless michelin video, WTF is this parkour wheelchair? isnt that one of the brain dead “revolutionary” designs by the same dude that made segway?

2 cars can sit on a parking lot for days if not months, michelin design was deforming under load quite significantly, I imagine this deformation could get semi permanent with time.

The comb design is nicer, draws from natures old blueprint for rigid structure. One drawback is being open, a ton of rock is going to end up inside the wheel (I think one of Mars rovers ended up with a rock inside open wheel)

1 well maybe

2 This is meant do deform !! This gives the tire its Flexibility. The hardest riddle that they had to solve for this tire must have been the material, and i dont think they are stupid enough to use someting that will be damaged by having some pressure on it over time.

3 … i dont think its that hard to make a rubber wall on these tires.

The problem with sidewalls will be the necessary deformation. By its nature, the honeycomb design has to flex, but fusing an ‘end’ onto the open ‘tubes’ its made out of will cause the ends to deform. Conversely, its possible the sidewalls would make the whole tire more rigid and less effective.

@rasz

how stupid, a wheelchair that might make things more accessible for people with disabilities. that is so much like that device which allows americans to be lazier!

@Zanzee

Why would it get crushed? There is obviously no force being exerted in the open spaces when not below the wheel axle. If the support of the tire is in the “Webing” then there is a good chance that any moderately strong material stuck in the openings would cause the car to “bump” rather than destroy the material.

It is a non issue though, they will put sides on these tires, it’s a PR thing to leave them open.

The real issue is how these actually work in a friction environment. We already know that the current generation of run-flat tires are horrible performers in both a comfort and performance arena. Being able to change tire pressure on the fly, or depending on the weight of the car, or suspension setup is paramount to the performance of said tire. These will not have this ability.

Pneumatic tires are great at shock absorption, but that only half of what they are good at, when they deform they store that potential energy and return a large percentage when rolling down the other side of that bump or whatnot.

Ive played with pneumatic tires and solid ones on bikes, and the solid ones feel like you are riding a lead sled!

I wonder how good the energy return of this spring/comb system is?

I worked with the guy that helped develop these while I was at Dow Chemcical. Originally they were supposed to be run flat inserts, but I guess there must have been some sort of logistics problem getting these to wrap around a standard rim. Pretty cool either way.

If I recall correctly there were two problems with the Tweel. It would become excessively loud when speed exceeded 50mph. And the tires became too hot when reaching such speeds. I wonder if these will fare better.

As far as offroading is concerned, that’s not exactly relevant to the application here. The point is that in the context of a hostile environment, a significant vulnerability of the vehicle–being disabled by gun fire or shrapnel puncturing its tires–has been overcome.

This will benefit convoys following Iraqi highways or other predictable routes. No doubt pneumatic tires or treads will continue to serve for off-road conditions, but presumably if you are going where there is no road you will not have to worry about waiting IEDs or ambushes.

I think this honeycomb structure and adjustable air pressure aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive; when there is no air pressure (tire deflated or punctured), they would be soft for off-road use. On regular road, pressurizing the tire would make them harder and more suitable for higher speeds.

In essence, this could be an improved run-flat system. You can drive quite fast on soft tires, but the handling sucks, it’s very fuel-inefficient, and the tires wear very quickly. It would seem to me these are all things you don’t really care about when you’re trying to get out of a ambush situation.

Didn’t I see toys with these wheels very long ago? I wonder if a suit will follow.

I recall seeing something about a similar wheel in the late 90′s, it was an airless tire. I think it was being pushed as an emergency spare at the time, but I hadn’t heard anything about it since.

Aren’t you presuming a perfect surface underneath the tire when you say that davido? That’s hardly realistic, that’s the problem with going too theoretical.

Davido, simple intuition should demonstrate to you that your model is not realistic. What is the purpose of using continuous tracks on vehicles such as tanks? Is it not precisely because of their larger contact area?

The primary problem with off-roading is that you *do not have a fixed surface.* That means that everything you learned in physics 101 about coefficients of kinetic friction, etc., goes straight out the window.

Frequently, when you apply too much lateral force and not enough normal force, you end up propelling the surface instead of the vehicle. Furthermore, because the surface is deformable, you often rely treads on digging in and creating an interlocking substrate with the surface, rather than simple friction between the surface of the ground and the surface of the tire.

Your deduction is only valid for smooth, fixed surfaces. (and even then the event of significant heat transfer during braking can obliterate the expected coefficient of friction if there is not enough contact distribution)

Well, they can just use the same material and make a weblike structure over it. Besides, even if a rock went in, it shouldnt do any damage to the twheel.

davido is right, so is insipid melon and mike. i am too a mechanical/electrical engineer and both terms and arguments are both theoretically sound. The one thing i would like to see is how well they take pot holes, speed bumps, small mammals, and other debris without damaging the honeycomb structure at low speed and high speed. A good number of pneumatic tires will blow out if you hit a good sized pot hole above 40, *happened to me*, id like to know if these bad boys could handle a decent sized pot hole at high speed without severe consequences so i could continue to drive where i want and how i want.

I am barack obama and I approve this article

Surely everyone has seen the latest ‘low profile’ wheels. A 24″ rim with barely an inch of rubber looks much like the Tweel [depending on rim design].
A wall solves the problem of liquids and solids invading the tyre space, but makes a problem due to trapped air. The rims would need a filtered valve to equalize the internal pressure.
The Honeycomb Wheel does look cool tho.

Though it is true that the “tweel” was affected by the force of the car over time and that this could become semiperminant or perminant, it wont happen. Why? These aren’t really meant for everyday people’s cars. They are meant for professional racers / military vehicles where they are used almost constantly, and also on small vehicles like motorcycles and wheelchairs where the load is not heavy enough to cause a perminant or semiperminant dent.

Where are you getting your facts? Great site.