Tuesday 2 April 2013

WHAT CAUSES SIDEWALL BULGE IN TYRES?



The underlying cause of a tyre bulge formation is the separation of layers of material – plies and rubber  in the sidewall of a tyre. You may already know that a tyre is constructed by layering hundreds of polyester cords or other strong materials (also known as plies) with layers of rubber, sometime cemented together by bonding materials like glue. The rubber layers hold the air in the tyre while the plies provide structure, shape, and strength to the tyre under pressure. Since the durability of a tyre is dependent upon the bonding strength between these component layers, a loss of bonding strength can lead to ply or layer separation. Loss of bonding strength and separation can be caused by several factors, among which are:

• Contamination of components or other defects during manufacturing (a rare occurrence)
• Under inflation or over loading of the tyre (more common – depends on the driver)
• Tire damage caused by road hazards such as striking the curb or hitting a pothole (most common – often the driver is unaware of the incident)

Any tyre that develops a bulge (in the sidewall or the tread) is not repairable. The internal structure has failed and the tyre itself is very likely to fail at some point.

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