Autonomous and semi-autonomous cars bring with them new methods of safety testing. What happens, for example, if a tire deflates suddenly when the car is driving rather than the human, and how well will it cope? US firm Koala Technologies has developed a new piece of equipment that enables a road tester to deflate a tyre by remote control from within the car. The kit meets the requirements of existing regulations, including the FMVSS 10 US federal standards; specifically, this US regulation is intended to ensure that tires have sufficient load-carrying capacity and are appropriate for the kind of use the vehicle gets. It also verifies that a tyre remains on the rim when it deflates at speed.
Koala Technologies’ new kit also meets 5ye emerging standards for EV lateral stability tests with and without the motor engaged, which are already mandatory in the same markets such as China
Called the sense bloom, the kit is mounted to the wheel of a vehicle, which could be a car or larger. It has central air ejector values with a volume and flow capacity designed to emulate a sudden loss of pressure due to tyre failure.
The equipment is plumbed into the inside of the tyre by tubes and connectors screwed into the rim. The valve opens when the operator presses a button, causing instant deflation, just as if the tyre suffered a real-world blowout. The equipment is
Designed to be a reusable turnkey system that gives repeatable results.
Koala says the kit has a number of advantages over existing methods, which usually involve destroying multiple tyres. A traditional approach to proving grounds is to drive a vehicle so that two wheels on one side runoverr a series of aggressive ‘cleats’, rapidly deflating and destroying a pair of tyres.
There are two problems with that. One is that stability tests may require one tyre to be deflated, leaving the other three intact, so deflating two on one side may not work for certain tests. The other is—The cost and sustainability issue of trashing two tyres instead of one.
The Sense Bloom avoids that and can be installed on any part of the vehicle. Although installing the connectors and tubes from the central valve requires modifications to one of the car’s rims, Koala provides a wheel set-up service if testers want it.
Rapid tyre deflation can be triggered from inside a vehicle or remotely and works with tyre pressures of up to 100psi and at up to 87mph. It also accurately captures the tyre pressure data, which can be used for detailed analysis of the vehicle and tyre behaviour when the tyre deflates.
And that unusual name? It’s got nothing to do with cars or tyres. The maker chooses aquatic names for its products and Bloom relates to the appearance of algae in oceans and waterways
