The aviation tyre — an under-the-radar part, but as important as the aeroengine.
More than 50 percent of plane crashes occur during takeoff and landing, and 80 percent of them involve tires, according to the FAA.
The Concorde crash that shocked the world and the disintegration of the United States “Columbia” were caused by tire blowout.
The characteristics of aircraft tires are different from the appearance of automobile tires: the plane tire tread has a strip along the circumference of the straight groove, but no transverse groove;
Automobile tire tread is mostly composed of circumferential straight grooves and transverse grooves of various patterns.
Tread patterns are not designed for beauty, but are determined according to performance requirements.
Aircraft taxiing and braking require tires to have a good sliding function, aircraft tires for this set up circumferential straight groove;
Transverse grooves can significantly shorten tire life, so aircraft tires do not have transverse grooves.
How much force can airplane tire soles withstand?
Tens of tons of aircraft take off and land at a speed of hundreds of kilometers, the weight of the aircraft plus the impact force on the ground, each square centimeter of tire rubber surface will bear nearly 1,000 Newtons of pressure.
Take Boeing 777 aircraft for example, when the plane is ready for flight, the total weight of the plane is about 300 tons, which is mainly borne by the 12 wheels of the main landing gear of the two wings, and the average weight of each wheel is 25 tons.
At the same time, the takeoff speed of the aircraft in 300-350 km/h, landing speed in 200 km/h above, the tire also bear a strong vertical impact load and horizontal direction) speed of friction load.
In addition, the aircraft tire also needs to withstand the altitude of minus 50-60 degrees, 150 degrees deceleration brake temperature changes rapidly, which is a very serious test for tire quality.
Life and Maintenance of an aircraft tire based on the number of flights, a tire can last about 250 to 300 flights before it needs to be replaced.
The tread can be retreaded five or six times, which means one tire can be used for about 1,500 flights.
Airplane tires are tubeless, twin-tread tires, which means they are not solid tires.
The wheel has no inner tube, which is mainly convenient for disassembly and maintenance. It can directly fill air into the tire before flight.
The high strength of the tire sealing ring can ensure that the tire up to several atmospheric pressure value of the gas leakage, performance is not comparable to ordinary car tires, so it is also quite expensive.
At the same time, the main steps of tire replacement of aircraft wheel include disassembly and washing, inspection, flaw detection, assembly, inflation, static release test and other six steps.
The airline workshop is mainly responsible for the overall disassembly and assembly of the wheel, and the wheel to be repaired will be sent to the wheel set.
The wheel set first separates the tire from the hub, and then the hub is completely disassembled and cleaned for inspection.
There are many accessories on the hub, including as many as 20 single screw screws, and each nut has self-locking function. It is necessary for the mechanic to confirm the self-locking effect one by one before assembling the wheel.
In addition to the nut, there are hot melt plug, valve core and more than fifty inspections, such as bearing wear or corrosion to replace the new, wheel hub detection cracks will be sent to the renovation workshop for repair.
All these work makes the replacement of wheel tire far more complicated than the car tire.
China’s aviation tire industry began in the early 1950s, after experiencing imitation, independent innovation stage, has now entered a period of rapid development.
Also appeared three rubber tire, Yinchuan Gitong tire, Shuguang rubber Industry Research Institute and other excellent aviation tire enterprises.
Tire remanufacturing has become a trend. Tire remanufacturing refers to that when the basic life of the used tire is reached, the main body is intact, and the new product is repaired many times with high and new technology to reach the original technological level or even exceed the original.
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