Six Questions You Can Use to Determine Which Polyurethane Tire You Need
Six Questions to Determine the Polyurethane Tire You Need
When it comes to tires, we can
agree that they are round, and they roll. So, selecting the right one should be
pretty straightforward, right? If you have read our Picking the Right Poly post,
you probably know that more thought must go into this process.
Back in February, we covered the
basics of what to consider when selecting the best tire for your needs. We hope
this information improved your polyurethane knowledge and confidence in
material selection, but we realize the details might slip your mind when you
are in the field. For this reason, we created a material selection guide that
can be easily used to analyze a facility’s needs and identify the best-suited material.
In a technical industry, the idea of chemistry and polymer formation can be
intimidating to many of us. We’ve identified six simple questions that get to
the bottom of your needs, stripping away the daunting engineering values that
can be hard to interpret.
Importance of Material Selection
In most cases, the search for a new
material comes as the result of tire failure or the sense that another could deliver
more of the qualities desired (comfort, load capacity, etc.). Finding a better
material can limit the headaches and costs that are associated with an
ineffective one. Tires account for a significant portion of the equipment’s overall
maintenance, but the proper material selection will minimize this.
During the selection process,
premium materials may be overlooked to avoid higher costs– and in some cases
rightfully so. Not every application is demanding enough to benefit from a
premium material, but many do. Premium parts often save the end-user money as a
result of fewer necessary repairs, service calls, and replacement parts. Experience
with failing parts can make it hard to justify a more significant investment in
your tires. However, price-driven searches find the cheapest parts that
continue to need replacing and increase costs in the long run. It can be hard
to justify until you experience the Stellana difference, but investing in the
best parts for the equipment's usage is a huge cost saver over time.
In addition, selecting the right
material improves customer relations and satisfaction. Dealers aim to keep
their end-users happy, and the OEMs do not want to pollute their brand image
with failing parts. Along these same lines, choosing the right tire material
will help your equipment perform as it was intended to. Operators can move
faster and carry heavier loads which increases operational efficiencies. In one
instance, a customer of ours was able to remove the speed constraints
previously programmed into their trucks in an attempt to correct poor tire
performance before using Stellana drive tires. Don’t limit the effectiveness
of your equipment with low-value wheels. Make sure you get the most picks per
hour from your tires because that alone will justify the cost.
When looking at Stellana tires, it
is easy to see the color differences among our materials, but it is not as easy
to understand what differentiates them. This guide was intended to steer you in
the right direction and encourage you to ask the questions that are the most
significant deciding factors in material selection. The equipment will dictate
the tire’s required size and dimensions. It is the material that is open to
more interpretation.
There are a lot of technical data
sets to sift throughout your selection process, so we boiled it down to six
questions that capture the significance of the figures. We even did it in a way
that your coworkers outside of the engineering department can use and interpret
to make informed decisions.
Here are the six main things to
consider:
- What are your load requirements?
- What are your speed requirements?
- Is there a presence of moisture in your environment?
- How would you describe the flooring quality?
- What is the temperature in your facility?
- Are there any harsh substances present (such as oil or chemicals)?
One other consideration worth
noting is the run length. It can be more difficult to quantify this metric directly
but taking into account the distance between picks is important. In some
applications, trucks are moving just 100 ft between picks whereas some travel thousands
of feet between picks. Similarly, in many of today’s large facilities, trucks
run continuously as opposed to intermittently. The longer the run, the more
heat build-up a tire incurs. Harder materials tolerate heat better, as a
general rule, due to the reduced compression in the material.
Interpreting Your Results
By answering these questions, you’ll
identify a material that will work for you and there may even be a few. Once
you fill out the guide, you will notice that there is some
overlap between the materials that will potentially work for your application.
The main contributor to this
overlap is the material's durometer. We have two 90A durometer materials – the
Smoothy 90 and the max90. The Smoothy™ tire is the same hardness as the max90
and offers the same speed and load performance, but they are not the same. The
Smoothy is made using zero total indicator run-out (TIR) technology. Meaning our
engineering and manufacturing processes provide uniformity in roundness that is
maintained even after being pressed onto the hub. This perfect roundness offers
a smoother, safer, and a more energy-efficient ride that is better designed to
tackle the increasing heights and accuracy requirements within reach truck and
picker applications in comparison to the max90.
Other Applications
We designed this guide as a
resource for forklift tire selection, but we produce wheels and tires for many
different uses. Our material expertise can contribute to any stage of the
material selection process within any industry. Polyurethane is a versatile,
durable material that produces excellent solutions through proper material
selection, design, and manufacturing. If you have an application, you would
like to investigate further, please contact us at info@stellana.com to begin working with a
polyurethane expert.
For more information on polyurethane material selection
visit:
Changing car tyres is an essential part of maintenance that every driver has to face. The tyres you choose can determine your whole driving experience tyres affect how well your car handles. For more information, visit ctyres.co.uk.
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