Goodyear is understandably pumped up over its latest tire technology.
The Akron tire maker on Wednesday said it is getting closer to commercializing its still-under-development Air Maintenance Technology, or AMT, which basically fits a small air pump inside a tire to keep it properly pressurized.
That helps improve fuel economy and also reduces tire wear and tear, the company said. The tiny pump is powered by the energy created when the tire rolls along roadways. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will show off the first Akron-developed truck tire versions of its self-inflating tire at a prominent commercial vehicle show in Hanover, Germany, that starts today and runs through Sept. 27.
Fleet testing of AMT truck tires is planned to start in the second half of next year, said John Kotanides Jr., project leader, advance concepts at Goodyear’s Akron Innovation Center.
“We are talking the big tractor trailers,” he said.
Goodyear has not yet determined which truck fleets will test the new tires, he said.
Goodyear last year announced it had developed the self-contained Air Maintenance Technology for car and light truck tires.
Work on consumer tires is being done at Goodyear’s technical center in Luxembourg. Goodyear received $1.5 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy for the commercial tire application of the technology and received European funds for the consumer side.
The technology does not require electronics, outside pumps or driver intervention. Car & Driver magazine in December 2011 called Air Maintenance Technology one of the “10 most promising future technologies.”
The Akron Innovation Center team started work on the AMT commercial tire not quite a year ago, Kotanides said. The team of 12 to 14 people is made up of materials developers, experimental engineers, manufacturing development engineers, “finite element analysts” and business and marketing people. Kotanides, 52, has worked at Goodyear for more than 20 years.
“It’s a pretty all-encompassing group,” Kotanides said.
The Akron team works with others at Goodyear, including the consumer AMT team in Luxumbourg.
It’s still too early to say when AMT tires will be publicly available, Kotanides said.
Prototype tires have been built at Goodyear’s Topeka, Kan., plant. Goodyear said that “validation testing” shows the AMT pumping mechanism works.
The Akron project team’s goal is “to keep it as simple as possible,” Kotanides said.
That helps reduce tire costs while also improving reliability, among other things, he said. AMT tires can be built using current manufacturing methods.
Commercial truck tires have more challenges than consumer tires, Kotanides said. Commercial tires typically operate under more severe conditions, among other things.
“We also have to make it through the retreading process,” Kotanides said.
Goodyear said because tire-related costs are the single largest maintenance item for truck fleets, AMT selling points include:
• Nearly half of all tractor-trailer breakdowns involve a tire.
• Only 44 percent of truck tires are with 5 psi (pounds per square inch) of target pressure; nearly half are underinflated by six to 19 psi and another 7 percent under-inflated by 20 psi or more.
• For every 10 psi loss in inflation, there is a 1 percent loss in miles per gallon. That will cost a truck company more than $600 in fuel; a 2 percent loss in mpg costs on average $1,200, based on a truck getting 6.6 miles per gallon, traveling 100,000 miles a year and paying an average of $4.10 a gallon for fuel.
• 10 percent underinflation can shorten tread life by nine to 16 percent.
The retail price of an AMT tire has not yet been determined.
“We are still too early in our process to speculate over price points,” Kotanides said.
The AMT tires are intended to more than pay for themselves over their lifetime, Goodyear said.
Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.