If there is an impressive story about the Michelin Bibiden Challenge that began in Chengdu on November 12, 2014, I will not hesitate to talk about the TED2.0City speech and a tire auto-repair experience. Listed as the top two.
Although I saw the automotive technology startup teams from Denmark, France and other European countries throughout the conference hall, many of them carried very mature technologies that were rarely practiced in China to be showcased – including ECO companies that provide vehicle building solutions. , and the robot arm Atel, these dazzling steel combinations are enough to make me excited (I will not introduce these new European automotive technology companies or teams in the next article), but I intend to put it today. The two often-different experiences were subjectively pushed to the stage.
If you are concerned about the most cutting-edge topics of each era, the most interesting people to share, then I do not need to elaborate on the exquisite degree of the TED speech each time. As usual, this time every guest in TED2.0 in Chengdu is emotional. Full and confident to elaborate on his own set of maverick ideas, to bring the audience the most perfect speech has been the goal pursued by this non-profit organization. This speech eventually attracted most of the audience, but also because many people did not grab the location was separated by the door, in short, it shocked me.
But this is still TED, or is not so close to the car, you can also view this program on the official website of TED. Next I want to introduce an automotive-related technology experience. This experience not only allowed me to see a development direction of tire technology, but also subverted my basic understanding of the tire.
It sounds dazzling. In fact, the whole process is still very practical.
At the open air plaza at the Michelin Bibiden Challenge Conference, I was one of the people who will experience Bipeden's “Automatic Tire Repair” technique for the last wave of the day.
The site of the experience was followed by six Volkswagen MAGOTANs. The 6 cars themselves were nothing special. Only the tires were replaced with Michelin's own tires. The first car used a technology tire that could “repair the damage automatically”. The Michelin technical person in charge at the scene told us before the experience: If your tires burst in the course of your usual driving, then you must feel that if you continue to drive, it will affect the entire driving safety. But Michelin did a breakthrough study. If the tires were tied, he could fix them immediately.
The biggest thing that came to mind when I heard this was that the tyres were also starting to "smart" - a complex mechanical repair hardware was installed inside the wheel. Once the tyres went wrong, all kinds of knives, knives, forks and hammers would Working on the inside of the tire repair, forming a small repair factory. How to automatically repair it?
The person in charge does not intend to immediately reveal the answer. He asked us to experience it first. In the first lap of the experience, I drove the last MAGTENG in the team as a driver. Before leaving, we all experienced a necessary preparation: to break the tire!
Two nail barriers side by side were prepared at the scene. The operator pressed and opened the girl and the six large nails stood up instantly. According to the length of the nail and the strength of the erection, any tire will not be spared.
When I successfully "riding" the car to this roadblock, and then heard a "bang", my drive's left front wheel should have been punctured. This is not enough, in order to ensure that the tires were indeed tied up and broken, there was a staff member after the roadblocks were checked, "Yeah, it's really broken, you can go," and I just started on the road.
In the course of the next 2 km of urban road test, I only felt a few slips in the left wheel during the operation of several lines close to the end of the road. At other times, I felt nothing.
After the first lap of the test drive, we found out that the tires were indeed paralyzed and had been leaking, but did not interfere with driving. I and another media colleague felt that I did not experience the feeling, so I made another lap.
We recorded a video in this lap. The automatic tire repair technology I emphasized in the video is actually not on my Magotan, but we did not pay attention to this detail before we set off. However, this is one of the closest auto repair tires that Michelin can offer. It will still have a certain appearance after being punctured for you to drive.
After the end of the second lap, we looked at our own car and the first MAGOTAN with Michelin automatically repairing broken tires. Oh, the nails were also the same. The tires of the first car were indeed intact, bulging, like they were just full of gas.
The head of Michelin subsequently announced the answer: Michelin was trying 10 years ago to develop a tire that would automatically repair broken tires. The tires currently being displayed have added a mucus to the underside of the tire's sidewall. The mucus will quickly flow to the damaged area and quickly break and close to cure. "The repaired damage can be subjected to the same grinding as other parts of the tire, and then, like other untied tires, it will automatically be scrapped after reaching a certain degree of wear. The head of Michelin said.
This product really solves my big problem, knowing that a small hole on the road a few months ago made a big hole in the explosion-proof tire of the car I was driving, and the tire instantly missed the gas and there was no spare tire. Under the circumstances, I had to drive another 2 km to find a repair shop. As a result, the inside of the tire was ground and the entire tire was scrapped.
However, according to Michelin's technical person in charge, the damage should be ensured within a certain range, a large area of damage, people and mucus are also unable to return to heaven, and the current product is still perfect, there will be a certain period of time to mass production.
In fact, this experience was over, but there was an episode: We were asked to change our new tires, but when we put the new tires in a hurry, we turned the old tires over 10 times and found no way. The hole, so that we later suspected that the old tires were removed accidentally and changed again. Finally, there was no way. We found an air pump to pump air before we found the hole on the outside of the tire. Although this tire has not yet reached the automatic repair technique, it can be seen that the rubber has started to adhere after it has been preheated by friction, and this hole has been blocked for a while.
Although the current auto repair tires are mainly used in passenger cars, it is understood that they may be applied in trucks after two years. The first application may be in light truck companies.
Ningbo Heyu Tire Repairs Co., Ltd.
November 29, 2020
