To the 80th anniversary of the first winter tires The Finnish company Nokian, its engineers have developed a concept tire that can generally change the classification of winter tires into friction and studded. Moreover, there is already not just development in the virtual space, but prototypes that are tested on the closed White Hell track. test site Nokian Tires in the Finnish Arctic.
The essence of the development is that the spikes in the new winter tire are retractable, i.e. when driving on asphalt, they will hide in the tread, and as soon as the tire comes into contact with an icy road, they will be given the command to “come out”. This is a real “dream tire”, adapted as much as possible to the current changeable climate, when we crawl on asphalt, and half on ice and snow. Moreover, since these tires will not wear out the asphalt-concrete road surface, they should not be subject to legal restrictions by the number of spikes, their weight and size. At the same time, Finnish tire manufacturers can make a stud of such a size and install such a number of them that it will be possible to obtain grip properties on ice comparable to rally studded tires with a carbide core height of 5-8 millimeters. These are exactly those tires that allow you to drive on ice, almost like on asphalt.
How the extension of the spikes will be constructively implemented, the Finns keep in the deepest secret. It can be a pneumatic actuator, and an electromagnetic one, and a spring one, or maybe some other fantasy. So far, it is only known that on prototypes, the driver himself activates the spikes using a special button in the car. Although in real life this will most likely be done with smart electronics. For example, a command for spikes to start working can be given by a system that controls the type pavement. We already wrote about testing one of these systems in Finland almost a year ago. Its essence is to monitor the work brake systems cars with ABS and ESP that drive on roads common use. Based on these data, using a special software icy sections of roads will be determined, where the spikes will be commanded to come into operation.
The option of a more affordable ice detection system, which will be placed on the car and scan the road in front of the rolling path of the wheels, is not ruled out. To recognize ice, for example, the law of refraction of light rays when reflected from different road surfaces - asphalt, snow, ice, comparison angular velocities wheels different axes or some other way. However, this is all guesswork. One can only assume that if these concept tires get a start in life (which is not guaranteed, since not all concepts have a future), their prices in the price lists will be rather big and at the first stage of production of a super-tire can be found only in wheel arches premium models.
As it should be on especially solemn occasions, the appearance of this Finnish engineering miracle was shrouded in a veil of infernal mystery. The short winter day has already turned into night. The huge ice test shed for tires (650 meters long and 20 wide) of the Nokian Tires test center near the Arctic town of Ivalo is plunged into darkness. It is hardly penetrated by the headlights of two cars placed at the end of the hangar, there is not enough light for the entire length of the hall, but the rays snatch out of the darkness the ice floor, polished to mirror shine, it’s scary and dangerous to step on it - it’s so slippery!
Matti Mori, the brand's head of technical customer service, escalates the situation: “We'll only be here for a few minutes! Look, take pictures, but no questions!” Rock growled from the speakers. And now, from the far dark end of the hangar, it flies at us, blinding with headlights, a silvery Porsche Cayenne. It flies past us, the brake lights came on, but the car slows down reluctantly, sliding (it is clear that the car is “shod” in friction tires or, as we call them, Velcro tires). Then the Porsche turned around, disappeared again at the end of the hangar, turned around and now it is rushing at us again. But this time, having approached, he braked energetically and quickly stopped in his tracks.
While we were thinking about what the “trick” was, the driver drove up close to us, slowed down, and we saw traces of spikes on the ice! But where, because the "German" was not "changed shoes"! The test pilot opened the door and pointed to a button on the left under the steering wheel, glowing green with the Nokian brand color. He pressed the button again, it went out, and the spikes retracted into their miniature flanges. I pressed it - the spikes came out smoothly, I pressed it again - they just as slowly retracted, like the claws of a cat. Spikes on all four tires appeared and sunk at the same time.
To our applause and camera shutters, Matti Mori explains:
“Don’t expect this world’s first retractable stud tire to be on sale in a week, this is a concept, a presentation of our ideas, unique technologies and opportunities, this is still a hint at the future of winter tires…
The concept tire, a technological breakthrough of the famous Finnish brand, uses a tread and Constructive decisions applied in the new one presented to us here in Ivalo, at the presentation and during the test drive of the new studded Nokian tires Hakkapelita 8 SUV for SUVs (we'll talk about it later). At the same time, the body of the spike (flange) remains motionless, only the moving part of this mini-structure moves back and forth, the hard metal core is the spike itself.
And how can one not remember that the first attempt to create a Q Celsuis tire with retractable spikes was made by the Americans in 2007. Her design contained a pneumatic chamber that inflated and pushed out the spikes. The inventors, according to informed sources, even agreed with the Chinese tire manufacturers, who seemed to agree to put the new product into production. But something did not grow together, since then no new information about "Q Celsuis" has appeared.
On the other hand, when we were told at the presentation about the design of the Hakkapelita 8 SUV tire, we drew our attention to such a characteristic detail: the stud flange is not only recessed in the rubber compound - a gasket made of soft rubber acting as a shock absorber. This softens the impact of the stud on the roadway and reduces tire noise - indicators that are especially important for heavy SUVs. And what if this “gasket-spring” could be blown on the go and the air pressure in it could be reduced by pressing the “green button”? Isn't this the secret of the miracle tire technology? However, this is just my guess...
Experience shows that Nokian Tires simply does not spend money, the Finns are great pragmatists. Not tomorrow, so the day after tomorrow, in six months, in a year, but this or a very similar Finnish miracle tire will be on sale. This is the trend, and the Finns are one of the world's trendsetters in this area.
This highly intriguing demonstration was just an episode in a press test run by the firm at the Ivalo training ground in Finnish Lapland, the realm of Santa Claus, where reindeer often take to the road. And this test drive was timed to coincide with the anniversary: 80 years ago, back in 1934, Nokian Tires launched the world's first winter tire for commercial transport made from frost-resistant rubber compound, "cooked" according to a special patented recipe. Two years later, the company offered customers a frost-resistant tire for cars- Lumi-Hakkapela (this "winter" nonsense is now one of the most popular in the world), and since 1961 the company has been producing studded tires.
Mikhail ROSTARCHUK,
Ivalo — Moscow
Winter is coming, which means that motorists are already puzzled by the search winter tires for their cars. And it is quite natural that a dilemma arises before the driver: to choose studded tires or, on the contrary, to give preference to the one without studs? And some also. Unfortunately, even experienced motorists cannot always answer what fundamental difference between these two types?
Studded tires seem to be better than non-studded ones, because they have studs, and therefore, in theory, it will be more convenient to ride, and it looks cool! In addition, today more and more often you can hear such a thing as "floating spikes". But what are Winter tires with floating spikes, for some reason no one can answer. Let's figure it out together.
Types of winter tires
So, I repeat that there are two options for winter tires: one that has spikes and one that, accordingly, does not have them. The presence or absence of spikes is due to some conditions in which the driver is with his car. If he lives or spends most of his time in an urban environment where the roads are constantly cleaned, then it is better to give preference to non-studded tires. If the habitat of a motorist is outside the city, studded tires should become his faithful assistant. I'll explain why.
The task of the spike in the tire is to pierce the surface on which it hits, that is, how to “grip” with snow and ice. Thanks to this grip, you can not be afraid not to enter the turn at speed when there is ice on the road.
Riding with studded tires on cleared asphalt is definitely a bad idea. Firstly, the movement will be somewhat difficult, there may be a slight slowdown due, again, to the spikes. Secondly, on a clean surface, these tires are very noisy, which is quite uncomfortable. And, thirdly, no matter how expensive your rubber is, the spikes will quickly rub off on the asphalt or simply fly out.
Tires with floating studs
Not so long ago, some tire manufacturers announced the launch of new rubber, which is equipped with a revolutionary technology: floating spikes. To be more precise, rubber has intelligence: it is able to recognize asphalt and hide spikes. When the car re-enters snow covered surface, the spikes reappear. Unfortunately, in reality, such a move turned out to be just a marketing ploy. However, you must admit, it would be great to have such tires?
Approach the choice of tires for your car wisely, because the wrong choice can result in additional waste, and may even cost you health, or, even worse, life!
