Ever want to make your car more like a Formula One racer?
Thanks to a new technology that makes it easy to fill passenger-car tires with nitrogen, used on the Formula One, NASCAR and Indy circuits, you can.
Fifty Shell Oil Co. service stations in Houston, in conjunction with Air Products and Chemicals Inc. in Allentown, Pa., got the ball rolling in the U.S. in May by offering nitrogen tire inflation to their customers.
In the Chicago area, Waukegan Tire and Performance Wheel is the first tire dealer to buy the nitrogen extraction equipment that makes it easier to use the gas in tires.
“To the United States market, this is a very new product,” said Ronald S. Zmich, industry engineer for Air Products and Chemicals. “It was introduced into Brazil about three years ago. We have been very active down in Brazil with more or less the exact same system.”
Francis X. Hersey, president of On Site Gas Systems Inc., of New Britain, Conn., said his company supplies nitrogen in 20 countries with Korea, Sweden, China, Norway and the U.S. among the strongest markets. In general, he says, South America likes nitrogen because it prolongs the life of tires, which are expensive there, and Norway likes its tendency to improve gas mileage.
Nitrogen has been used in the tires of race cars, heavy equipment and airplanes for years. New technology is bringing it into general consumer use.
“The technology that we employ is called membrane technology,” Zmich said. Industries ranging from steel to food have used the process for years for “inerting”–removing oxygen or moisture from substances. Application to non-commercial tires has been more recent.
Zmich said that with his company’s equipment, compressed air enters a cabinet with three filters that remove oil and moisture to create a stream of clean dry air. The filtered air goes through membrane modules, a bundle of hollow polymer fibers that look like very thin straws. Oxygen, which diffuses through the polymer much more readily than nitrogen, is vented into the air through a side port while pure nitrogen comes out of the polymer.
The nitrogen then is stored in a tank to be used in a manner similar to compressed air.
On Site Gas Systems has a similar process called pressure swing absorption (P.S.A.).
“Twenty years ago, our company offered nitrogen in Waukegan through a competitor of Air Products,” said Gerald E. Nerheim, president of Waukegan Tire. But the process, using heavy, bulky gas cylinders, was cumbersome. “With Air Products UltraFill System, we can manufacture it right in our own shop.”
Nerheim says nitrogen, which is drier than compressed air, helps maximize tire strength by minimizing internal corrosion, metal rim oxidation and tire wall cracking.
“Most–of the tires today have steel (belts) in them. And that moisture (from compressed air) penetrating into there causes oxidation and causes a weakness. Moisture is probably the biggest enemy a steel-belted tire has. The rubber companies continually work to isolate and protect the steel cables, steel belts from moisture.”
Though nitrogen slows oxidation, Beale Robinson, chief engineer for passenger-tire engineering at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., doubts people would notice it in the life of the average broad market tire.
Robinson says, however, that the tires the company makes for many applications have their own inflation guidelines.
Though Goodyear fills Formula One racing tires with nitrogen, that generally is to accommodate team preferences. Under racing conditions, the heat generated by high speeds could cause water vapor to heat up and contribute to the possibility of tire fires.
Also, “nitrogen is mandated by the (Federal Aviation Administration) for all commercial and military aircraft,” said Zmich. “Has been for years. . . . Nitrogen also goes into much of the heavy earth-moving equipment, mining equipment and large, large (off-the-road) tires for people like Caterpillar.”
Dr. Claire W. Gilbert, publisher of a monthly environmental newsletter, Blazing Tattles, says, “Nitrogen gas is found naturally in the atmosphere, and if the gas used for inflation in vehicle tires is the same gas as found naturally in the atmosphere,” there should be no environmental problems.
Nerheim said his customers have responded well and quickly to this service. “We’ve had people with race cars who want us to fill their tires, people with basketballs, bicycles. We’re going to expect a lot of activity on this.”
He fills tires bought at Waukegan Tire with nitrogen for free, Nerheim said. Nitrogen now goes into all of the tires that the shop works on and sells. New-car owners or those who have bought tires elsewhere can get nitrogen replacement, a process that takes about 10 minutes, for $5 per tire.
“I think as people realize the benefit of it, other people will come on board. It gives us, I feel, a competitive advantage over other (dealers) because I look at the entire benefits of nitrogen, and I wouldn’t want to go somewhere, now knowing this, and have air put in my tires. I think it just cements our relationship with our customer, and they’re pleased to see us doing things for them.”
Goodyear offers a caveat, however. Tires filled with nitrogen must contain only nitrogen. Even a small amount of compressed air contaminates the in-tire environment, eliminating the benefits of nitrogen. Nerheim says his operation is using a new electronic purge system that empties the tire of oxygen for nitrogen replacement.
