With the continuing increase in the price of gas, everyone is looking for ways to make their miles per gallon increase.  If you can’t buy a new car, maybe a set of CODA self inflating tires (SIT) will do.  Under inflated tires cost you in lost gas mileage and more wear and tear on your tires.

SIT tires have a myriad of benefits.  The tires remain properly inflated providing greater stability while driving, greater gas mileage and longer tire life.  Carnegie Mellon’s Sustainable Earth Club conducted a study of 81 random vehicles and found that 80 of the 81 had on average tires under inflated by 20%.  Since the “The EPA estimates that for every 1 psi of under- inflation, fuel economy drops by 0.4%“.  A loss of 8 psi will cause a loss of 3.2% in fuel efficiency.

SIT uses a peristaltic pump to keep tires inflated.  This pump is similar to the mechanism on a hospital IV that controls the rate of flow of the medicine being delivered.  The controlling piece is a rotating ball that drives the medicine through the tube and into the patient while creating pressure on the other side of the ball that draws more medicine into the tube.

Coda Development’s version of the peristaltic pump is the tire itself.  As you drive, the rotation of the tire draws air into a special internal air reservoir (tube) on the tire wall.  The air is then moved from the tube into the tire by the rotation of the tire.  When the tire pressure equals the reservoir pressure, the inflow of air stops. A pressure sensitive managing valve ensures that the tires remain properly inflated.  The valve can either be electronically or mechanically controlled.  Tire pressure is when routine maintenance occurs.

Because these tires use very few specialized parts, the cost of the tires should not be that much more than normal tires.  The cost will probably be easily recouped by the decrease in wear and tear on the tires and the steady gas mileage of your car. 

With all of the new fangled methods of increasing gas mileage from hybrid cars to fuel cell cars to electric cars, its nice to know that tires have been developed that will help maintain that improved gas mileage.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 1:48 pm under Science and technology.

Read more entries by Susan Wilson.
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