Today at the Detroit Auto Show Michelin showcased a potential future for mobility, an integrated tire and wheel combination missing one ingredient that is vital for traditional tire performance... air. The company unveiled the first real-world fitments for its revolutionary “Tweel” – which operates entirely without air.

“Major revolutions in mobility may come along only once in a hundred years,” said Terry Gettys, president of Michelin Americas Research and Development Center in Greenville, S.C. “But a new century has dawned and Tweel has proven its potential to transform mobility. Tweel enables us to reach levels of performance that quite simply aren’t possible with today’s conventional pneumatic technology.”

Michelin’s Tweel is in production and available as an enhancement for future iBOT™ mobility systems. Invented by Dean Kamen, the iBOT™ mobility device has the ability to climb stairs and navigate uneven terrain, offering mobility freedom impossible with traditional wheelchairs. Additionally, Segway LLC´s Concept Centaur, a prototype that applies self-balancing technology to a four-wheel device, has also been equipped with Tweel to increase its performance potential.

Beyond these first real-world applications, Michelin has additional projects for Tweel on construction skidsteers and a variety of military vehicles. The most intriguing application may be Michelin’s early prototype Tweel fitment for passenger cars. The mobility company released video of promising Tweel performance on an Audi A4.

“The Tweel automotive application, as demonstrated on the Audi, is definitely a concept, a stretch application with strong future potential,” said Gettys. “Our concentration is to enter the market with lower-speed, lower-weight Tweel applications. What we learn from our early successes will be applied to Tweel fitments for passenger cars and beyond.”

Benefits of Tweel™:

The heart of Tweel innovation is its deceptively simple looking hub and spoke design that replaces the need for air pressure while delivering performance previously only available from pneumatic tires. The flexible spokes are fused with a flexible wheel that deforms to absorb shock and rebound with unimaginable ease. Without the air needed by conventional tires, Tweel still delivers pneumatic-like performance in weight-carrying capacity, ride comfort, and the ability to “envelope” road hazards.

Michelin has also found that it can tune Tweel performances independently of each other, which is a significant change from conventional tires. This means that vertical stiffness (which primarily affects ride comfort) and lateral stiffness (which affects handling and cornering) can both be optimized, pushing the performance envelope in these applications and enabling new performances not possible for current inflated tires. The Tweel prototype, demonstrated on the Audi A4, is within five percent of the rolling resistance and mass levels of current pneumatic tires. That translates to within one percent of the fuel economy of the OE fitment. Additionally, Michelin has increased the lateral stiffness by a factor of five, making the prototype unusually responsive in its handling.

Future of Tweel™ Technology:

For Michelin, Tweel is a long-term vision that represents the next step in a long path of industry-changing innovations. Fifty years ago, Michelin invented the radial tire and there is no question that radial tire technology will continue as the standard for a long time to come. Michelin continues to advance the performance of the radial tire in areas such as rolling resistance, wear life and grip. In the short-term, the lessons learned from Tweel research are being applied to improve those conventional tire performances. In the future, Tweel may reinvent the way that vehicles move. Checking tire pressure, fixing flats, highway blow-outs and balancing between traction and comfort could all fade into memory.

crazy

 

Hmmm.. interesting...

 

cool concept, probably take a while to catch on. I'd use those if they were stiff!

 

hahahhaha......tweel......

 

I can already see stuff getting stuck in those huge gaps throwing the balance waaaaaaaay out there.

Shaky shaly wheels !

 

dang the Tweels on that audi look like its got drag slicks on all four corners.....they look like they hold the road fairly well though. interesting but def. strange.


-Ted

 

One jump and I'll snap them all.

 

You have to admit that bike-thing is pretty awesome. And the tweels make that bobcat look pretty sweet.

 

They'd need to close the sides for dirt snow and gravel though, Like Alex was saying- otherwise they will be a nightmare to keep balanced

 

I think they just left the sidewalls off to demonstrate how they work. I don't think they'd keep the sides open like that.

 

Anything that deforms so much as shown on the Audi will not perform well and will probably not last long. I think this could use a bit more work.

 

Awesome I'll take a set. You could probably add inserts to tune the tires as well

 

Has anyone ever read Neil Stephenson's "Snow Crash"? He describes a tire that looks kinda like this which has the advantage of increasing the contact patch for additional grip. I think the idea could be made cool if the tire gained lateral and transverse rigidity as the tire was compressed.

Anyway, just stating the obvious.

 

For the people that are worried about them going out of balance, I don't understand how those are any different from the huge gaps in your current rims

And to Aegon, have you ever see how much tires deform?

+1 for innovation.

 

Well for one, the huge gaps in my rims are about 4 inches away from the gravel or dirt most of the time, and they are shaped in a way that doesn't retain dirt and rocks.
The big wide area on the inside of the rim does hold dirt, and even being 4 inches out of it, that area tends to collect a lot of crap.

At least inside the wheel the dirt spins around and gets somewhat evenly distributed, with all the spokes in these they would clog up and hold crap like crazy.

Innovation is all well and good, and I fully expect that decent practical products will come out of the research, but I'm not ready to trade in my Pilot Sports or my FB-90 gravel spec tires on these anytime soon.