Air-less tire from Michelin first to appear in iBot wheelchair
First automobiles to use air-filled tires appeared in the early 1890's. A century later, the French company Michelin, begun work on an innovation that could render the pneumatic tire obsolete. Michelin's american technology center envisioned a future in which vehicles ride on what they call the Tweel - a combined tire and wheel that could never go flat because it contains no air.
The first commercial use of the integrated tire and wheel assembly will be on the stair-climbing iBOT wheelchair. iBOT product s are developed by Dean Kamen, more widely known as the Segway's inventor. The Tweel offers a number of benefits beyond the obvious attraction of being impervious to nails in the road. The tread will last three times as long as today's radial tires, Michelin says, and when it does wear thin it can be retreaded.
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