Cars are a necessity for modern people, and driving has become a basic skill for modern people. But what do you know about cars? Tires, parts and appearance are the parts of the car that we can see. The production technology and craftsmanship that we cannot see are actually more

Cars are a necessity for modern people, and driving has become a basic skill for modern people. But what do you know about cars? Tires, parts and appearance are the parts of the car that we can see. The production technology and craftsmanship that we cannot see are actually more important. At this point, Thor Tire has taught me a profound lesson, and I believe it will also bring you a more intuitive tire visual experience.

We like to compare cars to "home". In the ranking of auto parts that are "both father and mother" on the car, car tires must be given a high position.

calls it "a father" because it needs to be as strong and reliable as its father, able to hold up the sky. Think about it, if the tires are not durable, you won’t dare to walk on even bad roads, if you encounter danger, the tires can’t grip the ground, and the car can’t stop, do you still think this home is a harbor?

said it "becomes a mother" because it should be as gentle and considerate as a mother and be able to take care of the house. Think about it, if the tires are whirring every day and the noise is scary, can such a "mother" raise a calm child? If tires consume a lot of fuel and always exceed the budget, can such a "mom" make the family prosperous?

1. What challenges will tires face in the new era?

I myself have just become a dad. After becoming a parent, I truly realized that being a parent is not easy.

Times are constantly changing, and the pressure on parents is also increasing day by day. They must not only shoulder the responsibility of supporting the family, but also constantly improve themselves in the ever-changing life, so as not to hold their children back.

The same is true for cars, especially new energy vehicles, which are under greater pressure.

First of all, because new energy vehicles are not covered by engine noise, the tire noise will be more obvious. Everyone's tolerance for tire noise is very low, so special attention must be paid to overcoming the tire noise problem. The same is true for me when I drive myself. I would rather close the windows and turn on the air conditioner to consume some electricity than open the windows, because the influx of tire noise from the car and the tire noise from the surrounding vehicles is very uncomfortable. I drive for more than an hour each way every day. It would be useless to do this. The goal of

silent tires is to reduce the noise caused by the friction between the tire and the ground. The common thinking is to soften the rubber formula and refine the tire pattern. It is the same reason that softening the rubber and wearing sports shoes will make less noise when running with the ground than wearing sneakers.

However, tires are just like people, it is often difficult to weigh them. When one end is raised, the other end falls. Tires that are too soft are not wear-resistant and their service life is greatly reduced; and the use of finer tire patterns will lead to weakened dry grip and poor wet drainage of the tires.

We often hear complaints that silent tires are not wear-resistant and have poor grip. I think all fathers are like this too. They are too strict with their children and are afraid of rebellion, and are too gentle but are afraid of arrogance.

In addition, all old cars also have the problem of tires that need to be upgraded urgently.

Because in the early years, everyone focused on the three major parts of the car, and did not pay much attention to the NVH experience. As for tires, which are the key to affecting NVH, not much effort was spent on noise reduction in the early days. The focus was still on wear resistance and improving road grip.

China’s stock market is huge, and many old cars are in urgent need of upgrades to improve user experience. On the bright side, almost all foreign brands attach great importance to this largest market segment and have flagship products. For example, Tesla’s original Michelin PS EV or Hankook Vantus s1 evo silent cotton tires.

But these are generally expensive, with a good set of tires costing several thousand. For example, on the Michelin e Listen, only high-end 19-inch tires use sound-insulating cotton. Who's mom is not careful about budgeting every day? When buying a mobile phone, she has to ask about the price. Faced with this situation, pressure has been put on Chinese tire brands, and many users are very much looking forward to them exporting products with the same leading technology.

Among many tire brands, the Michelin Primacy series focuses on quiet comfort; the Continental CC series also has good noise reduction effects, but is slightly insufficient to adapt to Chinese road conditions. Dunlop SP Sport LM703 is not as quiet as the top two, but its performance is balanced, especially its wear resistance.Among Chinese tire brands, Leishen Tire and Chaoyang Tire have attracted much attention. Firstly, they have rich size adaptations, fully meet the needs of electric adaptation and fuel upgrade, and maintain high cost performance as always.

2. Silent cotton technology is a technological watershed for tires

The most noteworthy technology for automobile tires in recent years is silent cotton tire technology, which is also a technological watershed for tires.

(1) It can be considerate like a "mother"

The TORDNER Silentium™ noise reduction technology used by Thor Jingyue Tire is a set of active and passive noise reduction technologies from the inside and outside, thus achieving a direct 6dB noise reduction at 60km/h. exaggerated effect. I've done the test.

needs to explain that mine has just completed its first warranty. The original tires have a mileage of about 1,600km, and they are all driven on urban roads. They are 9.50% new tires, so there is no deviation between the old and new tires when comparing the two tires.

Note: The one on the far right is the original tire that has just been replaced. It is very new.

I chose to test the noise in the car at 40km/h, 60km/h, and 80km/h. In order to avoid the interference caused by wind noise entering the car, all the windows and the air conditioner were closed for the test.

Tires

40km/h

60km/h

80km/h

Use original tires

62.0dB(A)

68.0dB(A)

75.7dB(A)

Use Thor Silence 215/55 R18 99V XL Silentium

5 7.0dB(A)

63.7dB(A)

69.6dB(A)

Why it can achieve this effect is because it uses porous polyurethane sound insulation cotton inside to absorb noise; and optimizes the rubber formula to reduce the vibration of the tire hitting the ground when touching the ground. .

This idea is very clever, just like basketball shoes, which must not only ensure shock absorption and lightweight, but also ensure rigidity. Before the Joe 11th generation, there was no particularly good solution, and the Joe 11th generation used carbon fiber plates as sneakers. The mid-palm support completely solves this problem. This material has the same function as ordinary TPU. It can better connect the front and rear palms to provide better anti-torsion performance, thereby increasing the stability during exercise, and under the same conditions. The carbon plate has better torsion resistance and lighter weight than TPU.

A polyurethane sound-absorbing layer is attached to the inside of the tire, which can achieve a silent effect while maintaining the performance of the original tire.

polyurethane foam uses the principle of cavity acoustic wave air shock absorption to absorb and block the cavity noise generated by tire rolling and the pump noise generated by tire tread compression. These two kinds of noises are like "ghost sounds", which often cause headaches because they are difficult to understand.

Moreover, Thor tires use an emerging organic polymer material. Compared with ordinary sound-absorbing cotton, it has stronger impact resistance, vibration and noise reduction capabilities, and better stability.

Recently, Thor tires have been upgraded, and the new Jingyue Pro is much lower than the one I used. According to internal testing, at the same speed, the new and old products can achieve 4dB of noise reduction, which is equivalent to a 130% reduction in sound power, and the silent performance is significantly improved.

I think it is very difficult to reduce it by 6dB. If it can be reduced further, I am afraid that a lot of technical optimization of the entire set of modes will be required. After

research, Jingyue Pro has three methods:

a, using polyurethane foam with greater thickness, higher density, and larger volume;

b, using segmented pasting to increase the sound-absorbing area and upgrade the sound-absorbing and noise-reducing effect;

c, Different density arrangements are used. The closer to the inner layer, the smaller the density, and the closer to the outer layer, the higher the density. The step-by-step noise reduction and sound absorption effect isolates the tire cavity noise from inside the tire.

The first two points are easy to understand, and the third point is very interesting.

Many people must have encountered the so-called cavity noise. At a certain speed, there is always a buzzing or whining sound, but after this speed range, there is no sound. It is most likely it. (Tire cavity resonance noise is caused by road excitation to cause the cavity gas between the tire and the wheel to resonate, forming a resonant sound. Its frequency is generally 180~250Hz.)

This kind of ghost noise is difficult to solve and requires ingenuity. For example, Honda has previously designed a resin resonator that is wrapped around the wheel and generates the same frequency as the pipe resonance generated by the tire to eliminate resonance.

The principle is that since the tire size is known, the pipe resonance frequency can be determined and the pipe resonance can be suppressed by specific additions. Jingyue Pro has a similar approach, eliminating ghost noise through carefully designed polyurethane foam (certain porosity + different densities in different areas).

(2) It can be as reliable as "father"

The glue used to paste the sound-absorbing cotton is a special adhesive, which is also one of the silent black technology materials of Thor Tire. The function of

adhesive is to fully fix the sound-absorbing cotton and tire tread, because the tire will deform when rolling. Compare silent cotton to the insoles of basketball shoes. During intense exercise, the insoles may become dislocated, or even some areas may be rolled together. The principles are similar.

The picture below shows the amount of adhesive used in Leishen Jingyue tires. You can see that it uses five strips of adhesive, each with a width of about 1cm-2cm. This amount can ensure that the silent cotton is firmly fixed and will not become silent after running for a period of time. The cotton just shrinks together.

In addition, the adhesive will become less viscous or harden and become brittle under repeated high and low temperature changes. The adhesive used in silent cotton tires is required to maintain the soft state of "chewing gum" for many years, and to maintain high viscosity at all times, so as to meet the safety requirements of the tire's service life of about 5 years. In this regard, the tires are still in good condition after I use them now. I will continue to follow up later.

It is worth noting that the details of the newly upgraded Jingyue Pro are better. By vulcanizing a special capsule and using a 1000W high-power Han's laser machine for polishing and cleaning, the oil film on the tread surface can be thoroughly cleaned, so the adhesive will adhere more firmly.

Another thing is about the low rolling resistance characteristics of tires. If you want horses to run, you must eat less grass. Low rolling resistance is very important.

Michelin's low rolling resistance technology has two cores. One is the special tread design and formula. Then there is the use of low heat-generating rubber materials and energy-saving belt layers, which can reduce the internal energy loss during tire driving. The exterior of the

Thor Silent Tire adopts a five-frequency pattern block design to break up a single noise frequency and prevent the superposition of sound energy, making the tire pattern noise more difficult to perceive.

Moreover, the wear index of Thor Silent Tires under the US DOT standard has reached 520, which is generally only about 300-400 in the same level. Tires with a tire wear index between 160 and 300 are standard summer tires; tires between 160 and 200 are summer high-performance tires; and tires between 300 and 540 are all-weather standard tires, so Thor Silent Tires are suitable for the job. Various needs, the picture below is what I have used it for about 5000km, and the tire condition is quite good.

Caption: This is what my tires look like after about 5,000km of use, and they are in pretty good condition.

I have also studied the wear resistance of new products. Jingyue Pro has slightly reduced the wear resistance and enhanced the tire's grip. One of the key changes is that the base tire uses more silica black, which does not absorb water. , high wear-resistant compound tires use a large amount of carbon black, and the proportion of carbon black in the new Jingyue Pro is reduced, which makes the drainage performance better. Silica does not absorb water and loses a certain amount of wear resistance, but enhances the hydrophobic performance. .

I don’t think this approach can be said to be “getting better”. After all, many people value wearability. However, given that this tire already has outstanding wear resistance, slightly lowering the wear index and taking into account the need for grip will definitely have a wider audience. The wear index has been reduced from the original 520 to a wear index of 400. The overall positioning is more comfortable and quiet, which is in tit for tat with the Michelin e Listening (and if you look at the price, the Raytheon Jingyue Pro is basically 1/1 of the e Listening with the same specifications. 2 or even 1/3).

The success of Thor Tire Challenge Technology demonstrates that domestic tires no longer only focus on wear resistance, but pay more attention to improvements in grip and cost performance. Thor Tire is the most dazzling among domestic tires, because it has changed people's recognition of domestic brands through technology, and uses its strength to show the world that Chinese quality is worth having.The core content of

is reproduced from Zhihu blogger No. 7-Song

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