Force Field Technology

A force field, sometimes known as an energy shield, force shield, or deflector shield is a concept of a field tighly bounded and of significant magnitude so that objects affected by the particular force relating to the field are unable to pass through the central axis of the field and reach the other side. Commonly depicted as an impenetrable wall of energy.

 

The new type of armour will use pulses of electrical energy to repel rockets, shrapnel and other ammunition that might damage a vehicle.

Researchers at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), which is the research and development arm of the Ministry of Defence, claim it is possible to incorporate material known as supercapacitors into armour of a vehicle to turn it into a kind of giant battery.

When a threat from incoming fire is detected by the vehicle, the energy stored in the supercapacitor can be rapidly dumped onto the metal plating on the outside of the vehicle, producing a strong electromagnetic field.

Scientists behind the project claim this would produce a momentary “force field” capable of repelling the incoming rounds and projectiles.

Although it would last for only a fraction of a second, if timed correctly it could prevent rocket propelled grenades, which detonate on impact, from reaching their target. The supercapacitor could then be rapidly recharged ready for another attack.

The idea is similar to the force fields portrayed in science fiction movies which produce an invisible protective shell around a vehicle or object.

 

Professor Bryn James, head of Dstl’s armour and protection science and technology centre, said the electric armour had the potential to dramatically decrease the weight of military vehicles and tanks.

 

Currently few tanks are able to carry enough armour needed to resist impacts from RPG rounds, which produce jets of molten copper capable of punching through more than foot of solid steel upon impact.

 

He said: “The supercapacitor material can be charged up and then discharged in one powerful event to repel incoming fire.

 

“You would think this would require huge amounts of energy, but we have found it can be done with surprisingly small amounts of electrical power.

 

“Conventional armour is just a lump of metal but an RPG round can punch through more than a foot of steel. Carrying around enough armour to protect against that is extremely heavy.

 

“The real advantage to the electric armour is how light it can be by comparison.”

Applications

Television and film

Science fiction and fantasy venues postulate a number of potential uses for force fields:

• A barrier to allow workers to work in areas that can be exposed to the vacuum of space, keeping the atmosphere inside while allowing certain other objects to pass through.
• Emergency quarantine of an area afflicted by a harmful biological or chemical agent or occupied by enemy forces.
• The extinguishing of a fire by forcing the reaction to use up all the available oxygen in the confined space.
• As a shield from damage by natural forces or enemy attack.

courtesy:wikipedia, http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Posted by

Mahesh (MGIT ECE 4th year)

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A Force Field for Astronauts

Opposite charges attract. Like charges repel. It’s the first lesson of electromagnetism and, someday, it could save the lives of astronauts.

NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration calls for a return to the Moon as preparation for even longer journeys to Mars and beyond. But there’s a potential showstopper: radiation.

Space beyond low-Earth orbit is awash with intense radiation from the Sun and from deep galactic sources such as supernovas. Astronauts en route to the Moon and Mars are going to be exposed to this radiation, increasing their risk of getting cancer and other maladies. Finding a good shield is important.

Right: Supernovas produce dangerous radiation.

 

 

 

The most common way to deal with radiation is simply to physically block it, as the thick concrete around a nuclear reactor does. But making spaceships from concrete is not an option. (Interestingly, it might be possible to build a moonbase from a concrete mixture of moondust and water, if water can be found on the Moon, but that’s another story.) NASA scientists are investigating many radiation-blocking materials such as aluminum, advanced plastics and liquid hydrogen. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Those are all physical solutions. There is another possibility, one with no physical substance but plenty of shielding power: a force field.

Most of the dangerous radiation in space consists of electrically charged particles: high-speed electrons and protons from the Sun, and massive, positively charged atomic nuclei from distant supernovas.

Like charges repel. So why not protect astronauts by surrounding them with a powerful electric field that has the same charge as the incoming radiation, thus deflecting the radiation away?

Many experts are skeptical that electric fields can be made to protect astronauts. But Charles Buhler and John Lane, both scientists with ASRC Aerospace Corporation at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, believe it can be done. They’ve received support from the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, whose job is to fund studies of far-out ideas, to investigate the possibility of electric shields for lunar bases.

Artist’s concept of an electrostatic radiation shield, consisting of positively charged inner spheres and negatively charged outer spheres. The screen net is connected to ground. Image courtesy ASRC Aerospace.

“Using electric fields to repel radiation was one of the first ideas back in the 1950s, when scientists started to look at the problem of protecting astronauts from radiation,” Buhler says. “They quickly dropped the idea, though, because it seemed like the high voltages needed and the awkward designs that they thought would be necessary (for example, putting the astronauts inside two concentric metal spheres) would make such an electric shield impractical.”

Buhler and Lane’s approach is different. In their concept, a lunar base would have a half dozen or so inflatable, conductive spheres about 5 meters across mounted above the base. The spheres would then be charged up to a very high static-electrical potential: 100 megavolts or more. This voltage is very large but because there would be very little current flowing (the charge would sit statically on the spheres), not much power would be needed to maintain the charge.

 

The spheres would be made of a thin, strong fabric (such as Vectran, which was used for the landing balloons that cushioned the impact for the Mars Exploration Rovers) and coated with a very thin layer of a conductor such as gold. The fabric spheres could be folded up for transport and then inflated by simply loading them with an electric charge; the like charges of the electrons in the gold layer repel each other and force the sphere to expand outward.

How the voltage would vary above a lunar base for the sphere configuration shown above. You can learn more about this and other configurations in the report Analysis of a Lunar Base Electrostatic Radiation Shield Concept.

 

Placing the spheres far overhead would reduce the danger of astronauts touching them. By carefully choosing the arrangement of the spheres, scientists can maximize their effectiveness at repelling radiation while minimizing their impact on astronauts and equipment at the ground. In some designs, in fact, the net electric field at ground level is zero, thus alleviating any potential health risks from these strong electric fields.

One scenario for how an electrostatic radiation shield could be deployed for mobile lunar exploration vehicles. Inverted green cones denote regions of partial radiation protection. Image courtesy ASRC Aerospace.

It sounds wonderful, but there are many scientific and engineering problems yet to be solved. For example, skeptics note that an electrostatic shield on the Moon is susceptible to being short circuited by floating moondust, which is itself charged by solar ultraviolet radiation. Solar wind blowing across the shield can cause problems, too. Electrons and protons in the wind could become trapped by the maze of forces that make up the shield, leading to strong and unintended electrical currents right above the heads of the astronauts.

The research is still preliminary, Buhler stresses. Moondust, solar wind and other problems are still being investigated. It may be that a different kind of shield would work better, for instance, a superconducting magnetic field. These wild ideas have yet to sort themselves out.

But, who knows, perhaps one day astronauts on the Moon and Mars will work safely, protected by a simple principle of electromagnetism even a child can understand.

courtesy:http://inventors.about.com

Posted by

Mahesh (MGIT ECE 4th year)

Folding A3 Tablet Book

  British designer Phil Pauley has come up with a concept tablet that could be the next step forward in personal computing.

The A3 concept tablet looks like a laptop more than a tablet.

Users can fold it like an A4 book, or use it on a desk like a laptop, or if they prefer, they can totally flat this device like a piece of paper.

 

The Tablet can be used on a variety of surfaces, and in many different ways; folded like A4 book, on a desk like a laptop, or totally flat like an A3 piece of paper.

The tablet fully supports landscape and portrait viewing, and each screen be used individually, or combined to make 1 larger viewing area.

It includes 6 cameras for normal and Stereoscopic 3D recording/playback, incorporating two clusters of three cameras.

The top camera acts as a normal video/picture coms system while the twin pair at the bottom produce the Stereoscopic 3D for the same purpose.

 

The A3 Tablet Book with its advanced built in wireless technology will automatically find Wi-Fi Networks and 3G Connectivity.

The A3 Tablet Book can be ideal for playing games, listening to music, watching TV or movies or just staying connected through interactive media.

courtesy:yahoo news

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Hari Hara Sravan (MGIT ECE 2nd year)

 

U.S. Navy Laser Weapon

PHALANX WITH LASER CANNON: An artist’s rendering of a weapon featuring a laser cannon and Gatling gun side by side on a naval vessel, with the laser shooting down a UAV.Image: © RAYTHEON CO.

In a grainy, black-and-white video that looks like a home movie of a UFO attack a sleek aircraft streaks through the sky one minute, only to burst into flames the next and plummet into the sea.

The silent video, which Raytheon Co. debuts Monday at the U.K.’s Farnborough International Air Show 2010, however, is not science fiction. The defense contractor says it depicts part of a test conducted in May during which the U.S. Navy used a  solid-state laser to shoot down unmanned aerial vehicles over the Pacific Ocean.

During the test, the Navy’s Laser Weapon System (LaWS), guided by Raytheon’s Phalanx Close-In Weapon System sensors, engaged and destroyed four UAV targets flying over water near the Navy’s weapons and training facility on  San Nicolas Island in California’s Santa Barbara Channel, about 120 kilometers west of Los Angeles. The Phalanx—a rapid-fire, computer-controlled, radar-guided gun system—used electro-optical tracking and radio frequency sensors to provide range data to the LaWS, which is made up of six solid-state lasers with an output of 32 kilowatts that simultaneously focus on a target.

The maritime UAV target practice session could be a significant step in a decades-long quest undertaken by the U.S. military and several defense contractors to bring lasers to the battlefield. Raytheon’s latest test follows related experiments in 2006 and 2008. In the former, Raytheon used a solid-state laser to destroy a static mortar, whereas in the latter, the laser blew up an incoming mortar shell over land.

Knocking down drones over water is a different matter though. The effect of the moist maritime environment on a laser’s ability to propagate has been a nagging question for the technology, says Mike Booen, vice president of Raytheon’s Advanced Security and Directed Energy Systems product line. Now that the laser-enhanced Phalanx has demonstrated the ability to find and hit incoming UAVs, the weapon will be installed on an operational Navy test ship for additional testing, he adds. Still, even if the laser system continues to test successfully, such a weapon would not be fully developed for combat before 2016, according to Booen.

The U.S. military has used Phalanx for decades to shoot down mortars and rockets. The weapon combines a 20-millimeter  Gatling gun that fires at a rate of either 3,000 or 4,500 shots per minute, with radar to search for and track targets. The U.S. Navy has used a land-based version of Phalanx in Iraq since 2005. Mounting a laser cannon beside the Gatling gun should extend the range at which incoming ordinance and UAVs can be eliminated. Although Booen says that for security reasons he cannot divulge the distance at which the laser-based systems can shoot down incoming threats (or the UAVs’ altitudes during the Navy test), he notes that the military would not be interested in the new laser technology if it could not at least double the range of existing weapons.

A UAV’s altitude depends largely on its design and its mission. Hand-launched unmanned aircraft systems made by AeroVironment, Inc., for example, typically operate at altitudes below 150 meters but are able to fly much higher, according to Steve Gitlin, a spokesman for the Monrovia, Calif.–based company. “[Altitude] is largely driven by the resolution of their imaging sensors,” he adds. Larger aircraft that AeroVironment and others are developing are expected to be able to operate at upward of 16.5 kilometers.

Much of what the public knows about UAVs comes from news reports describing how the U.S. and its allies use drones to attack enemy fighters as well as incidents where civilians have been killed by unmanned aircraft. Booen points out, however, that enemies of the U.S. and its allies are also using UAVs either to attack troops or to track troop movements. Iran reportedly has been doing this for years.

In addition to Raytheon’s work, fellow defense contractor Northrop Grumman plans to test its solid-state Maritime Laser Demonstration (MLD) system with the Navy by the end of the year. For the at-sea demonstration, Northrop will power its laser up to 15 kilowatts in order to defend against simulated attacks of a Navy ship by smaller boats. A relatively low-power laser beam could set alight wood or fiberglass hulls, fuel or vulnerable weapons from stand-off distances of a kilometer or more, according to a May 14 Scientific American article.

Navy planners are interested in using lasers in to help naval vessels fend off potential attacks by squadrons of small boats, citing an incident that occurred in early 2008 in the Strait of Hormuz (a waterway connecting the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf). “The MLD system we are under contract to build for [the U.S. Office of Naval Research] will be scalable to a variety of power levels,” according to Northrop spokesman Bob Bishop. “That means that laser power can be added—or subtracted—to meet the level of response necessary to address the threat, all within the same modular laser weapon system.”

The military hopes that, in addition to extending the range of their weapons, lasers will also improve targeting precision. Another advantage, Booen says, is that lasers require electricity rather than ordinance. As long as there is current, the weapon will not run out of ammo.

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Hari Hara Sravan( MGIT ECE 2nd year)

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FUTURE SCREEN FROM GRAPHENE

In my last article we have gone through about the structure and properties of graphene. Now we are going to have a look at the futuristic screen which is transparent, flexible, and portable too. These new graphene screens are Indium free and developed through flexible electrodes Graphene screens are almost completely transparent, and are highly conductive and very strong.  

  

 

Researchers have created a flexible graphene sheet with silver electrodes printed on it (top) that can be used as a touch screen when connected to control software on a computer

Anyone with a smart phone or an iPad will tell you touch screens are the way of the future. But touch screens have some serious drawbacks, such as how expensive they are, not to mention easily breakable.

Graphene is a semi-metallic transistor. Simply put a transistor hold stateful information by switching from conductive to non-conductive. A one or a zero for example.

LET’S GET TO THE GIST:

          Flexible, see-through video screens may be the “killer app” that finally puts graphene — the highly touted single-atom-thick form of carbon — into the commercial spotlight once and for all. And this research was reported in the online edition of ACS Nano.

          The lab’s hybrid graphene film is a strong candidate to replace indium tin oxide (ITO), a commercial product widely used as a transparent, conductive coating. It’s the essential element in virtually all flat-panel displays, including touch screens on smart phones and iPads, and is part of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and solar cells.

Main point to be noted here is these graphene screens are highly conductive and strong where as ITO screens are likely to be broken easily.

A hybrid material that combines a fine aluminum mesh with a single-atom-thick layer of graphene outperforms materials common to current touch screens and solar cells.

IT’S DESIGN:

Using a roller, the graphene face can then be pressed against an adhesive polymer support and the copper etched away, leaving the graphene film attached to the polymer. The graphene can then be pressed against a final substrate – such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – again using rollers, and the polymer adhesive released by heating. Subsequent layers of graphene can then be added in a similar way.

The researchers used this technique to create a rectangular graphene film measuring 30 inches (76 cm) in the diagonal. The graphene was doped by treating with nitric acid and in this form the graphene sheet can act as a large, transparent electrode and was demonstrated to work in a touch screen device.

Typically, transparent electrodes used in such applications are made from indium tin oxides (ITO). The researchers say that the graphene electrode has better transparency and is tougher. ‘The price of indium has increased by a few times over the past decades and this will be more serious as markets for display and solar cells expand,’ says Ahn.’In addition, oxide materials like ITO are usually fragile and weak.’ Because of this, ITO-based touch screens have a finite life span, whereas, a graphene-based screen should last essentially forever.

Left: A transparent graphene film transferred on a 35-inch PET sheet. Right: A graphene-based touch screen panel connected to a computer.

Courtesy: science daily, new gadget, technology review, sciencemag, rsc.org

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Gopi Chand (MGIT ECE 4th year)

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Google Related ( A new feature to Google )

Almost every time we go online, we come across some new topic or item that we like to learn more about. Sometimes it’s as simple as the latest buzz on the new shop down the street. Other times it’s something more significant, like a counterpoint to an opinion piece I’m reading. While the answer can be just a simple search away, we wanted to find a way to get some of those answers to you even faster. Now with Google Related, a new Chrome Extension and Google Toolbar feature, you’ll automatically see interesting content relevant to what’s on the page you’re viewing, right where you’re viewing it.Whether you’re reading a news article, shopping for a new pair of shoes or visiting your favorite musician’s website, Google Related works in the background to find you the most interesting and relevant content on the topics you’re currently viewing. For example, if you visit a restaurant’s website, Related can show you a map, reviews from Google Places, mentions from across the web and other similar eateries that you might want to try.

Results will display in a thin bar at the bottom of your screen, and will remain minimized until you hover over them with your mouse. Once selected, they’ll open up immediately in your browser window, saving you the trouble of having to open multiple new windows or tabs. If Google Related shows you something you’re interested in, you can let others know using the built-in +1 button.

In order to offer you relevant suggestions, Related sends the URL and other available information about the pages you visit back to Google. If you’re interested in how that data is used and stored, you can learn more here and here.

If you decide you’d rather not see the Related bar, you can easily hide it for specific pages and sites through the Options menu. If you use Related as part of Google Toolbar, you can disable Related entirely through the Options menu as well.

Google Related is available both as a Chrome Extension in the Chrome Web Store and as a new feature in Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer. Visit http://www.google.com/related to learn more and to get Google Related today.

courtesy:www.googleblog.blogspot.com

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Mahesh (MGIT ECE 4th year)

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DELL Latitude Tablet PC

Dell has announced that it has finally launched the Latitude XT3 convertible tablet PC for fans of the form factor. The XT3 is aimed at the professional business user that needs a notebook but also wants that machine to be usable as a tablet form factor. The upside to the tablet machine of this sort is that it can type and be used like a normal notebook and it can be used one handed as a tablet as well. The form factor is perfect for the folks that aren’t at a desk often.

 

The XT3 has a very attractive design and the screen is a 13.3-inch HD resolution LCD that has good screen quality and wider viewing angles. The XT3 can also be fitted with an optional screen that allows it to be read in direct sunlight. The XT3 can be fitted with different Intel Core processors and has up to 320GB of storage space available with an SSD option. Some configurations of the XT3 boast battery life up to eight hours and the machine can use the ExpressCharge battery that can hit 80% capacity in an hour.

Converting to tablet mode involves twisting the screen around and folding it flat against the keyboard. The touchscreen can be used with multiple fingers (it support supports four) and a pen stylus. The keyboard has a backlight option as well. There are a number of accessories ranging from battery slices to docking stations and more. The XT3 also has data protection features like remote data delete and a free fall sensor.

 

 

Dell Latitude XT3 Tablet PC Specs

Display
Diagonal Size : 13.3”
Resolution : 1366 x 768 (HD)
Options :
– Wide Viewing Angle LED, Daylight Viewable, Pen & Touch
– Wide Viewing Angle Reduced Glare LED, Pen & Touch

Graphics Card
Intel® HD Graphics 3000

Chipset
Mobile Intel® QM67 Express Chipset

Optical Drive
Options :
DVD+/-RW via XT3 Media Base
E-Modular Bay II

Communication
Mobile Broadband & GPS options :
Dell Wireless™ 5630 Multi-mode HSPA-EVDO Mini Card (Gobi™ 3000) with A-GPS
Dell Wireless™ 5550 Single-mode HSPA Mini Card with A-GPS

LAN : 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet

WLAN & WiMAX options :
Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6205
Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N
Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300
Dell Wireless 1501 (802.11 b/g/n 1×1)
Dell Wireless 1530 (802.11 a/g/n 2×2)

Bluetooth : Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth® 3.0

Inputs and Controls
Dual Pointing Keyboard (optional backlit keyboard)
Multi-touch Touchpad
Multi-touch Screen and Pen

Audio
High Quality Speakers
Stereo headphone/Microphone combo jack
Integrated, noise reducing array microphone

Interface
1 x Network connector (RJ-45)
3 x USB 2.0 (1 USB/eSATA combo)
1 x stereo headphone/microphone combo jack
1 x docking connector
1 x IEEE 1394
1 x HDMI
1 x VGA

Slots
Card Reader : Yes
34mm ExpressCard
1 Full and 2 Half Mini Card Slots
SmartCard Reader and optional Fingerprint Reader

Camera
Integrated HD video webcam and Dell Webcam Central software (optional)

Power
Battery :
6-cell Lithium-Ion 44Wh
9-cell Lithium-Ion 76Wh Extended battery
9-cell Lithium-Ion 97Wh Extended battery slice

Adapter :
65Watt or 90Watt AC Adapter
90Watt Auto/Air DC adapter (optional)

Dimensions and Weight
Width : 323.0 mm (12.7”)
Depth : 221.7 mm (8.7”)
Height : 30.9 mm (1.2”)
Weight : starting at 2.02 kg (4.46 lbs)(with 6-cell battery)

Price: Expected to be around Rs 81000

courtesy:slashgear.com, techgadgets.com

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Mahesh (MGIT ECE 4th year)

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Lasers Used to Form 3-D Crystals Made of Nanoparticle

The technique could someday be used to analyze the structure of materials of biological interest, including bacteria, viruses and proteins, said U-M physicist Georg Raithel.

Raithel is co-author of a research paper on the topic published online May 31 in the journal Physical Review E. The other author is U-M research fellow Betty Slama-Eliau.

The standard method used to characterize biological molecules like proteins involves crystallizing them, then analyzing their structure by bombarding the crystals with X-rays, a technique called X-ray crystallography. But the method cannot be used on many of the proteins of highest interest — such as cell-membrane proteins — because there’s no way to crystallize those molecules.

“So we came up with this idea that one could use, instead of a conventional crystal, an optically induced crystal in order to get the crystallization of a sample that could be suitable for structural analysis,” said Raithel, professor of physics and associate chair of the department.

To move toward that goal, Raithel and his colleagues are developing the laser technique using microscopically small plastic spheres instead of the molecules. Other researchers have created 3-D optically induced crystals, but Raithel said the crystals his team created are denser than those previously achieved.

The process involves shining laser beams through two opposed microscope lenses, one directly beneath the other. Two infrared laser beams are directed through each lens, and they meet at a common focal point on a microscope slide that holds thousands of plastic nanoparticles suspended in a drop of water.

 

The intersecting laser beams create electric fields that vary in strength in a regular pattern that forms a 3-D grid called an optical lattice. The nanoparticles get sucked into regions of high electric-field strength, and thousands of them align to form optically induced crystals. The crystals are spherical in shape and about 5 microns in diameter. A micron is one millionth of a meter.

Imagine an egg crate containing hundreds of eggs. The cardboard structure of the crate is the optical lattice, and each of the eggs represents one of the nanoparticles. Stack several crates on top of each other and you get a 3-D crystal structure.

“The crate is the equivalent of the optical lattice that the laser beams make,” Raithel said. “The structure of the crystal is determined by the egg carton, not by the eggs.”

The optical crystals dissipate as soon as the laser is switched off.

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Jyothsna (MGIT ECE 4th year)

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Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle

Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), the fastest aircraft ever built is designed to fly anywhere in the world in less than 60 minutes, crashed into the Pacific Ocean, although officials said they were able to gather “unique data” that will guide the development effort.

   Flight one achieved many firsts: Deployed largest number of sea, land, air and space data collection assets in support of hypersonic flight test Maintained Global Positioning System (GPS) signals while traveling 3.6 miles per second; Validated two-way communication with the vehicle; Verified effective use of the Reaction Control System (RCS).

Launched from outer space

 Three technical challenges exist within this HTV-2 flight regime. They are categorized as aerodynamic; aerothermal; and guidance, navigation and control. And each phase of flight introduces unique obstacles within these areas.

 DARPA’s Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) program is a multiyear research and development effort to increase the technical knowledge base and advance critical technologies to make long-duration hypersonic flight a reality.Mastery of three key technical challenges stands between the DoD and long-duration hypersonic flight: Aerodynamics; Aerothermal effects; and critical guidance, navigation and control.

Historic first launch puts HTV-2 into suborbital flight.

KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFMCNS) – Artist’s drawing of the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-1. (Courtesy photo of Russ Partch).

 

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Hari Hara Sravan (MGIT ECE 2nd year)

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Tubeless Tyre Technology

Wheels and Tyres! The first thing which comes to our mind is the old Indian bullockcarts wheel, which never fails in its lifetime and is made If bands of metal that are fitted around wooden wheels in order to prevent wear and tear.

But after the introduction of engine driven vehicles, Tubed Tyres have become the norm.Tube tyres, are basically made up of natural rubber and fabric along with other compound chemicals. They also consist of a tread for traction and body support of the vehicle.The vast majority of tires are pneumatic(pressurized-air) ones with a halogenated butyl rubber tube.

Traditional designs of pneumatic tyres required a separate inner tube which could fail because of incorrect tyre fitment or friction between the tyre wall and inner tube(due to lack of pressurized-air) generating excess heat causing a blowout of air.

Tube tyres

In tube type tyres, the air is enclosed inside a tube, and the tube has the valve fitted to it. If an object pierces the tyre,it can cause the tube to burst just like a balloon or it makes a hole in the tube through which air comes out. As this happens, the tube gets smaller and the valve thus moves out of the rim hole. Thus the escaping air rushes out of the rim through the valve hole, leading to a immediate air loss.This immediate air loss or a blow out is dangerous due to loss of vehicle control during motion.

Tubeless tyre advantages

So when compared to tubed tyres, the tubeless tires provide great advantages in terms of safety, reliability, better ridehandling and improved mileage at the cost of its price and service. Though the tubeless tires are very new to Indian roads ,the fact is that they have been in use since the last half century in other countries, as well since decades in our SAARC neighbouring countries.

Technology

There is no tube in a tubeless tyre. The tyre and the rim of the wheel form an airtight container to seal the air as the tubeless tyre has an inner lining of impermeable halobutyl. The valve is directly mounted on the rim. If a tubeless tyre gets punctured, air escapes only through the hole created by the nail, thus giving substantial time between a puncture and a flat tyre.

Features of the tubeless tires:

The blowouts and high speed air loss are extremely rare which results in better safety and vehicle in drivers control.
When an object pierces the tyre, there is no tube to burst and the valve does not move out of the rim hole as it is fixed there. Thus there is no option available for air to escape.Though there is a some loss of air , the construction of the tyre mostly enables the rubber to hold the object tight & prevent further air loss.
It is suitable for high speed performance and comfortable driving due to the strengthened edge construction for better sealing with rim of tyres. Also there is an improved mileage due to light weight of the tyre compared to tube tyres.

In India ,initially SUV’s such as the Suzuki Grand Vitara, Chevrolet Forester, Ford Endeavour and Honda CRV use tubeless tyres.
Today cars such as the Honda Accord, Honda City ,Opel Vectra, the full Mercedes range, Chevrolet Optra, Honda Civic, and even the
higher variants of the Ford Ikon and Toyota Qualis all use tubeless tyres to the additional features available for driving on the Indian roads.

courtesy:autoraiders.com

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Mahesh (MGIT ECE 4th year)

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