“How it’s Made” Takes us Inside the Creation of Car Tires

It’s something that we take for granted but when we really think about it, drivers ask an incredible amount from common road tires. From a very basic standpoint, it’s almost a marvel of engineering that someone was able to manipulate a piece of rubber in such a way as to support the weight of a vehicle.

Furthermore, tires need to stand up to some pretty insane conditions. Not only do we expect them to last for thousands of miles but we also expect them to be able to deal with extremely hot and extremely cold environments. They need to be able to handle friction efficiently as well as considering the idea that they need to promote grip in case of bad weather. The design of most tires to be able to deal with rain alone is impressive let alone considering all these other factors.

This time, though, we are taking tires for granted no longer. Instead, we check in with an episode of How It’s Made that takes us behind the scenes of car tire manufacturing to give us an idea of what exactly it is that we’re dealing with.

At the end of the day, most people probably just see a circular rubber shape and think it was built from a mold. However, tires are constructed from 10 to 15 different components including rubber, chemical additives, and even pieces of fabric to help them stand up to what we ask of them. From the tread to the construction, there’s certainly a lot going on.

Down in the video below, we learn not only what tires are made of but how exactly they are put together. The tire industry is striving for better every single day. What we have on our vehicles these days is the result of lots of hard work and intelligent people coming up with designs to really make traveling easier and safer for all.