Solid Tires, All You Need To Know

There are many kinds of car tires nowadays, and the most widely used one is the pneumatic tire. In fact, there are many kinds of tires besides the pneumatic tire. Solid tire is one of them. Maybe people rarely see solid tires, but in fact, it is around us. Today, let's take a look at solid tires.
Solid tires are industrial tires suitable for vehicles running at low speed and high load. In addition to the characteristics of pneumatic tires, they also have small starting resistance, simple structure, convenient use and maintenance, small maintenance workload, no need for inflation, no leakage and tire blowout risks. Therefore, the safety, durability, puncture resistance, tear resistance, and economy of solid tires are good.
Solid tires are mainly used for industrial vehicles such as lifting vehicles, traction vehicles and flatbed trucks with low speed and high load, such as various forklifts, trailer vehicles at ports and airports, etc. They are also widely used in mining, docks, steel metallurgy, airports, military, construction machinery and other fields, as well as medicine, food, papermaking, textiles, electronics and other fields.
Classification of solid tires
1. Solid tires with pneumatic tire rims are solid tires installed on the rims of pneumatic tires.
2. Steel ring press-fit solid tires are vulcanized on annular metal belts and then pressed on matching wheels.
3. Bonded solid tires are tires directly vulcanized on the running wheels.
4. Non-marking solid tires (environmentally friendly tires) are solid tires that will not leave marks on the ground during use, especially brake marks.
Advantages of solid tires
Advantages: The biggest advantage of solid tires is wear resistance. There is no need to worry about tire pressure and air leakage. There is no need to worry about punctures, broken tires, and small needles and nails. Another point is that solid tires can carry more load weight than pneumatic tires. Finally, in terms of the aging speed of rubber, solid tires are definitely longer than radial tires and can meet the long-term use needs of vehicles working in harsh environments. The service life is generally longer, usually 3 to 5 years, and no air is required, which saves a lot of after-sales troubles.
Everyone is saying that we should check tires regularly, including tire pressure, tire temperature, air leakage, etc., and try to avoid tire blowouts. Then someone asked: Wouldn't we not have to worry about these if we made them solid directly? But why did radial tires replace solid tires? The previous rubber tires were indeed solid, but they were not comfortable to use. As the saying goes, a shoe weighs one pound, and a person weighs five pounds. The same is true for tires. Solid tires are definitely heavier than current radial tires, which will consume more fuel.
In addition, solid tires are not comfortable enough, the bumps during driving are more intense, and the cost is higher. Secondly, solid tires are unstable. When the tires run at high speeds, they may produce standing waves on the tire body because they have no time to recover from deformation, which will cause the tire temperature to rise sharply and cause a blowout. Solid tires are more prone to this phenomenon. There have been incidents of tire fragmentation when solid tires were used for testing. In addition, solid tires increase the unsprung mass. The larger the mass under the suspension, the slower the suspension system responds to changes in the road surface, which has a great impact on the dynamic performance of the vehicle. Therefore, solid tires are mainly used in industrial vehicles such as forklifts.
Pneumatic tire rims Solid tires and corresponding pneumatic tire rims can be used interchangeably. However, the loading and unloading of solid tire rims requires auxiliary tools (tooling) on ​​a press. To ensure the safety and accuracy of the installation process, the following rules should be followed:
1. First check the compatibility of the tire and the rim, that is, whether the specifications and models of the tire to be installed are the same as the rim models. The rim widths used for tires of the same specifications are different, so they must be confirmed first when installing. The inspection of the rim includes whether the rim has defects and burrs. If there are burrs, first grind them flat, otherwise it is easy to damage the tire hub and affect installation and use.
2. To ensure that the tire can be installed smoothly and reduce friction with the rim, during installation, the inner surface of the tire hub and the outer surface of the rim need to be sprayed and coated with lubricants. The lubricants can be selected from commonly used soapy water, laundry detergent water, etc. If conditions permit, special tire lubricants can be used, but industrial commonly used lubricants such as greases must not be used, because they will swell rubber and damage the tire.
3. When placing the tire on the rim, the head must be flat and not tilted, otherwise it will be difficult to install and the tire will sway left and right during use. The rim must be installed in place and the bolts must be tightened, otherwise it will easily slip or the tire and rim will separate, causing danger.