Guest_Jim_* Posted September 24, 2015 Posted September 24, 2015 A flat tire can ruin a day pretty quick, especially when a new tire has to be purchased. That could change in the future though, according to a report in the American Chemical Society's Applied Materials & Interfaces journal. Here it is described how researchers have created a durable and elastic rubber that is also self-healing. An important processing step for producing tire rubber is vulcanization, which adds curatives like sulfur to make the bonds within the material more durable. Once these bonds are severed though, they cannot be repaired. With their new process though, the researchers avoid vulcanization while still making the rubber durable and elastic, and adding the self-healing ability. This healing works at room temperature, so a tire in a garage would still heal itself, though applying heat speeds up the healing. After eight days the researchers observed that the rubber could withstand 754 PSI, and by adding reinforcing agents, it could be made even stronger. Source: American Chemical Society Back to original news post Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajmatson Posted September 27, 2015 Posted September 27, 2015 Now lest see if its used in tires, that would be a money looser for the tire companies so I can see them fighting back Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccokeman Posted September 27, 2015 Posted September 27, 2015 Haven't they been using self sealing rubber tanks in planes forever? I guessing the application they are working towards is tires. Hopefully a successful process that is not cost prohibitive can be found and that price wise it is affordable to the end user. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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