Straddle Carrier

Tire Flatproofing can be used even if the tire does not receive punctures.  For safety reasons, sometimes the application requires tires that never lose air pressure.

This Straddle Carrier was at a port in Sweden with 8 tires of size 18.00-33. The flatproofing volume of each tire was approximately 560kgs and required almost one hour to fill each tire with Arnco’s RePneu and pressurized them to 10,0 bar (145 psi). Although tires had been pre-stretched thoroughly, the tire dealer had to return to add more poly fill as there was carcass growth after in use for awhile (on one of the eight tires that is more loaded at times than the others). The post foam filling was successful

What is Tire Flatproofing or Foam Fill?

If you have heard of Foam Fill or Poly Fill, Tire Flatproofing is the exact the same thing and can only be installed by an authorized tire dealer.  Whatever the product has been called during the past forty years, it is simply liquid polyurethane that is injected into the tire that then begins to solidify inside the tire until the polymer replaces all the air.  All suppliers offer different durometers of poly fill such as a soft, medium, and hard.  The vast majority of the market uses a medium hardness which usually equates to a 30 durometer.

The result is a solid tire, but with a much softer ride than solid rubber tires as the urethane also acts as a shock absorber.

Tire Flatproofing is primarily for industrial, off-the-road tires, and earthmover tires.  Below are most commonly used applications:

• Skid Steer
• Telehandlers
• Loaders
  

  An illustration of a foam filled tire

• Forklifts
• Aerial Work Platforms
• Graders
• Underground Mining
• Cress Carriers
• Roof Bolters
• Shuttle Cars
• Scoops
• Personnel Carriers
• Scalers
• Shield Haulers
• Road Building Equip
• Tractors
• Carrydeck Cranes
• Straddle Carriers
• Military Support Vehicles

OTR Tire Conference

I just returned from the 2011 Tire Association of America OTR Tire conference in Miami FL. The conference touched on many areas of our industry currently affecting the OTR dealer. Primary among them are the on-going limits to product availability along with historically high prices on natural rubber.

The Keynote Presentation by Shawn Racey, President of Bridgestone Americas Off Road Tires, addressed these very topics. In his talk Mr. Racey emphasized the need to adjust quickly to maket conditions, for as he said “shift happens”.

One of the shifts OTR dealers will be looking at is the added value that flatproofing brings. By utilizing more flatproofing in the tires they sell, dealers will be able to extend the life of many OTR tires by eliminating catastrophic failure due to punctures and cuts while greatly improving the retreadabilty option.  

Welcome to the Flatproofing Blog

Welcome to the only blog dedicate to the Tire Flatproofing industry.

Our objective here at Arnco is to create a conversation within our industry to better educate and promote the benefits of flatproofing tires with polyurethane fill.  We encourage anybody with constructive information that you think would be of interest to our industry to post an entry.  However, this blog is not intended to solicit any products and will reject entries accordingly.

Here’s is just a small list of ideas that you could post an entry:

• Questions
• Recommendations
• Successful applications
• Problems
• Technical tips