Towards Development of Additive Manufacturing Material and Process Technologies to Improve the Re-Manufacturing Efficiency of Commercial Vehicle Tires

In the US, tire retreading is applied mainly to commercial vehicle tires and involves about 14.5 million units for end-users in the transportation industry. During retreading, the incoming casings must be buffed to a specific contour to accommodate a new tread band, which leads to material loss of about 4kgs, or ~8% of the original tire weight. Furthermore, the resulting remanufactured tire has ~2kgs additional weight compared to a new tire, which increases the tire rolling resistance by ~0.1Kgs/T and contributes to increased vehicle energy consumption and CO2 emissions during the tire usage cycle. This project seeks to improve the re-manufacturing efficiency of the tire retreading process through the concurrent development of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies and printable elastomers. The primary aim is to develop a novel AM technology and material such that tires can be directly retreaded to reduce by ~10% the use of primary feedstock to manufacture new tires without decreasing the tire longevity performance or increasing its re-manufacturing cost versus the conventional retread process. In this paper, the authors present progress towards this aim through developments in two key project objectives: (1) advancement of 3D scanning technologies to automatically generate multiaxis robotic deposition toolpaths for conformal printing directly onto worn tires, and (2) development of a 3D printable rubber latex emulsion that provides exceptional elastomeric properties and can serve as a bonding material to ensure cohesion between the tire casing and new tire tread bands.