If you’ve traveled with me, you know I have a lead foot. OK. Maybe there’s a pole holding my lead foot down, too.
It was that way before I learned how to drive around ovals, too. But, it did make my driving around ovals easier.
And, if you’ve ever driven cars around the track, with speeds well over 170 mph, you know that the quality of your car- and especially your tires- is critical to you finishing the circuit intact. And, while you expect the tires on your personal car to last 50,000 miles (you DO buy good tires, right?), the tires on race cars don’t last but 1/500th of that amount. (Sometimes, you can take the tires off, let them cool, and maybe get more mileage- but only those of us who didn’t have sponsors actually would consider that.)
Many of you also have these fancy sensors on your car tires that let you know if your tires are running low on nitrogen. (Please don’t tell me that you are still using air to inflate your tires!!!!! Nitrogen is better for mileage- and the life of your tire.) Now, my personal car just tells me I have A tire with low inflation, not which one. My buddy, Andy, has a newer model of the same car, and his tells him which one.
That’s a valuable piece of knowledge. Not only because it’s stupid to wait until the tire is flat, but because tires with the proper inflation yield the best gas mileage. It’s no longer a matter of dollars and sense (unless, of course, you’re cheap, like I am), but important for our environment. To use the lowest amount of resources- and emit the lowest amount of pollutants, as we indulge our need to move around in comfort.
Well, now, Drs. Aaron Franklin and Martin Brooke, along with their postdoc Changyong Cao and PhD candidate Joseph Andrews (all currently at Duke University; this research was also effected in concert with Fetch Automotive Design Group) have published some interesting research in IEEE Sensors. Their article, Noninvasive Material Thickness Detection by Aerosol Jet Printed Sensors Enhanced Through Metallic Carbon Nanotube Ink, describes their development of an inexpensive (metallic carbon nanotube ink) sensor that can be used to monitor tire wear.
The sensors not only detect low tread depth, but can discern uneven tire wear- like what occurs when one’s tires are out of alignment. (It’s also possible that the sensors can provide real-time data to tire manufacturers, providing performance data under real-world conditions, that can help develop newer, better tire designs.
These double-E (electical engineering) researchers employed pairs of electrodes (comprised of tiny carbon nanotubes) that are printed on a heat-resistance plastic sheet. This sheet lines the inside of the tire.
Y’all recall that nanotubes are pretty strong structures and can conduct electricity. And, if we need to conduct electricity, we need a power source, so they’ve included a long-life battery that yields very, very low voltage to one of the electrodes in the pair, setting up an electric field- which extends into the tire rubber.
So, now, when the rubber abrades (tire wear), the tire grows thinner and the electric field characteristics are altered. If the car is running (so the dashboard is active), then driver gets the information conveyed from the microchip in the tire.
Spoiler alert. In the lab, the tire wear sensor is about 99% accurate. In the field? Ah, that remains to be seen.
Moreover, someone in the automobile (tire) sector is going to have to become invested in this design. They’ll need to manufacture tons of the sensors. And, they’ll have to convince the auto manufacturers to allow the data to be displayed. Unless of course, someone figures out how to piggyback onto the tire-pressure sensors that are mandated in all new cars. (You didn’t know that this was a government regulation? You REALLY thought the manufacturers offered this out of the goodness in their hearts?)
And, as I alluded, I can see this technology rapidly adopted among auto-racing firms. First, because they need such information desperately. And, these guys are always tweaking their cars, adding in technology that makes racing safer and faster. (More the latter than the former.) Because not having to pull into pit row to check tire wear just once could be the difference between winning and placing 5th.
Too bad this wasn’t available before.
Oh, who am I kidding? We didn’t have enough money to add that kind of tech to our car.
I am ready because the copper pennies are getting harder to find. I am sure that some companies that make the higher priced cars will have this option available within a few years. A. It is a good sales point B. In the beginning, you will need to purchase replacement tires from them at a crazy price. Of course, someone will come along that will adjust it so the unaware will be buying replacement tires before they are needed.
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I am spending a few days with my son and shared your first paragraph. We know this- but our children do not!
Great comments- and thanks for the visit!