Have you ever noticed the mysterious spikes on car tyres? We explain to you what they are really for.
Of mysteries more or less veiled, our cars hide many of them. We find ourselves, perhaps after years, suddenly discovering what that particular function was for, being amazed why we hadn’t thought of it before.
Mysteries that can be hidden in every part of our car: among the buttons available to the driver, under the engine hood, under the steering wheel and so on. And yes, even on the same ones tiresbecause today we’re talking about a detail that many have noticed, but that few know what it’s really for.
We are referring specifically to the spikes on the wheels: obviously “spikes” is a rather basic term to define something more complex. They are some rubber bristles which, maybe you didn’t know, hide a very important function. Let’s find out together.
The mystery of the spikes on car tires: what are the rubber bristles for?
If you have ever changed a tire or received information from specialized personnel, you will know that the tires are equipped with special markers which serve to provide us with very important details.
Thanks to these markers, we can discover the tread depththe date of manufacture and a whole series of elements that give us an indication of the state of health of the rubber.
The spikes, or “hairs”, which cover the wheels are obviously not manufacturing defects or a sign that the rubber is about to reach its end. Quite the contrary: they are more noticeable on new tyres and confirm that your tires are still in excellent condition, even if their specific function is different.
Industry specialists call these bristles rubber “ventilation skewers” and over time and the kilometers traveled begin to decrease until they disappear completely. A tire that has traveled a long way probably won’t have any more, but you can notice it in any type of tyre, including motorcycle and bicycle tyres.
However, as we said, their main function is directly linked to ventilation. You must know that tires are built using molds that give them the shape you are looking for.
The building process is done by injecting liquid rubber with air pressure holding it into each corner of these moulds. So simply the rubber expands to the point where it manages to fill the mold.
To avoid trouble it was necessary to create evacuation or ventilation holes in order to push out the air pockets. The risk, when heat and pressure are applied, is in fact that air bubbles form between the mold and the rubber.
Having evacuation holes is therefore necessary for the air bubbles to escape naturally without creating defective tyres. In this process of expulsion seethe excess rubber also comes out, which forms those “hairs” that we see on all brand new wheels. Mystery revealed.
