Lighter & cheaper – Smart Tire Company announces latest airless tyre

A name still unfamiliar to many, The Smart Tire Company (STC) was formed in 2020 as part of the FedTech NASA Startup Program and focuses on commercialising NASA’s non-pneumatic tyre technology. It is working with vehicle manufacturers to produce shape memory alloy (SMA) tyres for cars and has launched a second generation of its NASA-derived Shape Memory Alloy Tire (METL) for bicycles. In addition to developing tyres for use here on Earth, STC says it intends to send tyres to the Moon as part of NASA’s Project Artemis.

METL is a high-performance, airless tyre that never goes flat, and following on from its initial launch in 2021, STC previewed the evolved product on 7 January 2023. As part of its mission to create an “affordable, high performing shape memory tyre,” STC tweaked the METL design to reduce the weight of the NiTinol (nickel titanium) core by over 50 per cent in the second-generation tyre, thereby reducing production costs. Through a patent-pending process, the tyre is integrated with clear polyurethane sidewalls and rubber treads. It uses less rubber than a traditional bicycle tyre and is designed to be retreaded and reused for the life of the bicycle.

METL is developed at STC’s new facility in Akron, Ohio, a town at the heart of the US tyre industry. Through a Space Act Agreement with NASA Glenn Research Center, the company hopes to further improve the design efficiency by “25 per cent or more” this year before going to market.

“From the first prototype, these tyres have shown great promise to revolutionise the cycling industry with high performance and low maintenance. However, our job is not done until they are affordable and can be produced at a large scale. We also set lofty goals that all of our tyres would be eco-friendly and made in the USA. This new design represents a major step towards achieving all of those goals.,” says co-founder and chief technology officer Brian Yennie.

Aiming for the Moon

Chief executive officer Earl Cole also revealed in January that STC is working on sending tyres to the Moon. “The technology behind the METL tyre was originally developed by NASA for their extraterrestrial pursuits. In fact, the co-inventor of the spring tyre and superelastic tyre leads our efforts here at STC. We are one of just a couple tyre companies working with major aerospace partners to bid on NASA’s upcoming return to the moon, Project Artemis, and the only one with technology already dedicated to the task. Combined with our work with NASA through a Space Act Agreement, we are well-positioned to become the commercial provider of SMA tyres for future space missions. In coming years, we will see the first woman on the Moon, and possibly manned missions to Mars, and we expect them all to be riding on Smart tyres.”

Partnership with Korean carmakers

Bicycles and moon buggies are well and good, but do STC’s tyres have a future in the automotive sector? STC certainly thinks they do, and is collaborating with Hyundai and Kia to develop smart car tyres. In November 2022, the company announced it was working with the two vehicle manufacturers as part of their Accelerate the Future Challenge to develop “the first high-performance airless automotive tyre made from shape memory alloys.”

“What an honour, and powerful validation of our groundbreaking, shape memory alloy tyre technology,” stated Earl Cole. “If you’ve been waiting for a signal that Smart Tire is for real and that we’re going after the biggest markets possible, what better way than working with two of the hottest Global 500 automakers in the world?” Brian Yennie added that in addition to its bicycle, scooter, and lunar tyre projects, STC was “kicking off development of the first rubber-integrated, airless automotive tyre made from shape memory alloys.”

The tyres that STC is developing are expected to weigh less than their pneumatic counterparts, result in less waste during their manufacture and require less maintenance during use, and offer improved driving range.

With combined revenues exceeding US$163 billion, STC considers Hyundai & Kia to be “at the forefront of the EV revolution” (Photo: STC)