US company claims 'Camber' tyre is as important as the radial

ERJ staff report (DS)

Wales, Wisconsin - Optima Sports LLC, a Wisconsin-based automotive and sports technology company, claims its new tyre design offers benefits including handling/braking performance, safety and fuel efficiency.

The company said the camber tyre design has broad market applications for every vehicle category, including cars, over-the-road trucks (semi) and vehicles with non-driven solid axle vehicles, such as trailers or mini-vans.

According to John Robinson Scott, the company owner and the CamberTire inventor, "This advancement will revolutionise the tyre industry and we are ready to bring it to market," he said. "'The benefits this design offers are significant to a traditionally slow changing industry - we have, literally, reinvented the wheel."  

Scott's company has been in prototype partnership with M & H Racemaster, a division of Interco Tire Corporation located in Rayne, Louisiana, under a Cooperative Development Agreement to produce prototype tyres and conduct the first industry testing.  The first round of two-degree camber tyres produced passed DOT testing.  High speed tests met V rated performance requirements, the highest test rating available through M&H, but the prototype tyres were built to meet or exceed Z rated performance.  

The product is protected under United States Patent 5,975,176 (dated 1999). The patent describes the camber tyre thus: “The inner diameters of each sidewall are preferably identical. The outer diameter of the outside sidewall is greater than the outer diameter of the inside sidewall. The cross-section of the width of the tread has a substantially constant thickness from the inside tread diameter to the tread surface of the tyre. The depth of the tread is preferably constant across the width of the tread surface.”

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Press release from CamberTire

Home page of the Camber Tyre from CamberTire