A NEW CUSHION TYRE WITH SEGMENTAL TREAD.
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A Tyre Which Does Not Push a Hump of Rubber Before It.
WE have recently had an opportunity of -investigating the possibilities of a particularly interesting new resilient tyre, which has given consistently good results under exhaustive and exacting trials. This newly designed tyre has been constructed upon what are claimed to be scientific lines, and is the product of a transport engineer whose knowledge of tyre equipment requirements is extremely wide and extensive. The patentee is Mr. J. B. Parker, A.M.I.E., general manager and engineer to the Teesside Hailless Trac
tion Board, of South Bank, Middlesbrough, whose recent evolution of an outstandingly important petrol-eleetriecum-trolley-bus passenger transport development is sufficient to command for his more recent invention the closest attention of all associated with the motor vehicle industry.
Sectoinatie tyres, as they are called, have been fitted for the purpose of carrying out the necessary experiments to vehicles engaged on Teesside Railless Traction service work for several months past, with results which prove their undoubted merit. One Set has been in use upon a bus which, when carrying a complement of passengers, weighs eight tons. This vehicle has, throughout the experiments, worked over roads of various characters and the mileage secured up to the time of our visit was 35,000, a figure which is in excess of mileages secured from other makes on the same vehicles and underidentical conditions.
The three outstanding "advantages claimed for the Sectoraatic over ordinary solid tyres and pneumatics have all been substantiated by actual results. They are :—(1) Greater comfort and reduced repair bills as a result of the reduction of vibration of chassis; (2) side splashing obviated, owing to the tyre keeping contact With the surface of the road, as a result of its construction, throughout the complete wheel revolution ; (3) skidding minimized, both because of the resiliency of the tyre and foi.• the reason
that it clings to the road, and thereby prevents bouncing and road shocks.
Other advantages which are claimed to have emerged from the tests made are increased speed with greater comfort and less power ; easier manipulation of the vehicle ; redneed tyre costs; reduced wear and tear on road surfaces and reduced tractive effort. The resiliency and flexibility of the newly designed tyre are satisfactory, and passengers have on frequent occasions made especial comment upon the smooth running.
The construction and design of the The action in the customary type of solid tyre, where the rubber is in continuity, is that be weight tends to push forward the rubber as the wheel moveS along the road. As a result there is a continual hump immediately in front of the point el contact of the wheel with the road being continuously rolled forward, except that now and again, when contact is lost, it rolls under the wheel and may become damaged. • The outstanding feature of the newly designed tyre is that this roll or bump of ribber is eliminated or dispersed at every few inches of travel, owing to the fact that the, distortion cannot be carried beyond the limit of a segment, whereas no allowance is made for this in the ordinary solid, owing to the continuity of the flexible material. It is claimed that the Sectomatic-tyred vehicle rolls over the roadway, instead of bumping and bouncing, for as ene segment takes the weight the grooves fore and aft permit the displaced rubber to spew, and as the point of contact moves forward the weight is taken over by the succeeding segment. Skidding is claimed to be rendered practically impossible, 'owing to this adhesion, and the resultant lack of distortion is said materially to reduce the nuisance of side-splashing. Whilst the tyre has only to date been fitted to passenger vehicles, it is, of course, equally suited to other types, and the intention of the Parker Tyre Co,, Ltd., who are putting the new design on the market, is to construct the Seetomatic for all classes of heavy vehicle between one and eight tons capacity.