Expand / / A closeup of Bridgestone’s newest Blizzak tire in its own normal surroundings. (charge: Bridgestone)
Monday marks the official beginning of winter in the usa. Not that the weather requires the calendar’s consent; most areas of the nation began seeing snow months ago. And, needless to say, you do not have to wait around to December 21 to exchange {} winter tires. To begin with, the tacky compounds utilized in summer tires are not designed to operate if the mercury drops below 45 degrees Fahrenheit (7.2°C), and that could occur well before the earth disappears under a coating of snow.
“That’s to do with all the glass transition temperatures of these compounds. The chemicals get tougher as the neighboring temperatures become cooler, and summer tires are intended for far lower range and fever,” explained Dale Harrigle, principal scientist in Bridgestone.
That is partly down to the mix which makes a winter tire. “We are utilizing silica tread chemicals in our committed winter solutions. We could tune the committed winter products to possess great traction at reduced temperatures without considerably impacting the rolling resistance we’d have 20 decades back. I feel a whole lot of the chemical and substance technology is what is enabled a few of those jumps in functionality,” Harrigle informed me.
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