Reports said that NASA-developed bike tires are now ready to hit the road. The result of the better half a decade development at the space agency, the new METL bicycle tire from The SMART Tire Company, is using a nickel-titanium alloy also known as NiTinol. It has been particularly treated to more-or-less retain its shape for good.
An INVERSE article described NASA as giving the world a "bevy of wonderful inventions" be it a Lasik surgery, a heat pump, a Velcro, or a 'Tempurpedic' mattress.
Describing the bike tires, the article said that when they're heated beyond 55 degrees Celsius, and then they immediately cooled, a shape-memory alloy object will remember the tires' original shape and goes back to it after deforming.
Shape-Memory Alloy
The shape-memory alloy of NASA is sort of a Tempurpedic-esque metal-mesh tire that can endure a beating, and it can deform like a rubber tire. Then, it can go back to its original shape as if it hasn't encountered any beating or gone any deformation at all.
The Shape-Memory Alloy Radial Technology or SMART Tire Company believed so and is now moving to take the NASA-developed bike tires to the road merging it with the world of cycling.
The company's CEO Earl Cole highlighted this new product's durability in a press release. Because of their ability to go through shifts at the molecular level under strain, the shape-memory alloys are not likely any other material that exhibits perfect 'memory' shape over time, the company executive added.
The result is, Cole continued describing the bike tires cycling products are ground-breaking, light in weight, durable, and never go flat.
Originally Invented for Mars
It appears that driving around on another planet indeed, does a number on wheels, the Inverse report specified. The Curiosity rover on Mars has encountered surprisingly high damage to its wheels, and, even though Curiosity is still going strong, the space agency saw the necessity for tough technology that could handle anything the Red Planet might dole out.
NASA has a program also known as the NASA Technology Transfer Program. It engages offering technologies developed by NASA out into the world for groundbreaking developments for both exploration and discovery that are extensively available to the public, maximizing the advantage to the nation.
In this particular case, NASA developed a metal tire that functions just like any other rubber tire although with better performance, and its developer is all set to put it in the consumers' hands.
The METL Tire
Most tire manufacturers are building tires with the idea that they will soon wear out and be replaced many times a bike's lifetime.
However, this METL tire, the company claimed, will be the opposite. It added, the said tire might last longer than the lifetime of a bicycle it is mounted to, and its cost may reflect this although the SMART Tire Company remains mum on the current cost.
Additionally, the company is also providing details like the tire's weight although it's claiming some of the major advantages of its technology comprise lighter weight and higher capabilities on the road
To put the product to test, the company said it is putting a traditional tire on one end of a bicycle, and a shape-memory alloy tire on the other end. The testes could determine the difference between them in terms of performance.
Related information on NASA's shape memory alloy tires is shown on Wonder World's YouTube video below:
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