Where technology meets the road
66 Commercial Carrier Journal October 2008 Tires that both run longer and operate more efficiently are a daunting challenge manufacturers tackle through design and materials. Y ou can be forgiven for thinking that building truck tires involves a bit of alchemy. The pro-cess by which tires are created the delicate art of forming, combining and curing raw materials like rubber, steel, carbon black and graphite into tough, dependable and efficient tires has evolved slowly but steadily since Charles Goodyear first vulcanized rubber way back in 1843. Normally, you've got about 14 different components in that tire, says Guy Walenga, engineering director of com-mercial products and technology for Bridgestone-Firestone North American Tire. And all that rubber has to stick to all that steel. And all that steel has to be insulated in such a way that doesn't allow it to touch any other steel. Why so much trouble? For starters, consider the length of time a tire is expected to be on the job. The tire revolves, on average, about 500 times in order to travel one mile, and a truck might run 400 to 500 miles a day in on-highway op-erations for 300,000 to 400,000 miles or more. During each revolution, each of the 2,000 body-ply cables deflect inside