Hankook Award-Winning Conceptual Tires

To use an egregious pun. . .Hankook Tire designers are on a roll.

So far this year they have received trophies in the International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), the Red Dot Design Award competition, and the iF Design Award.

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The most recent, the IDEA 2104 award in the transportation category, was for two concept tires, the Tiltread and the eMembrane, which were designed with students from the University of Cincinnati’s industrial design department.

The Tiltread (left, above) is based on a three partitioned non-pneumatic tires and automatic tilting system. The idea is that the setup will allow high-performance vehicles to corner more readily.

The other concept tire, eMembrane, uses shape memory alloys so that the contact ratio of the tire changes depending on driving speed. That is, when driving at low speeds, the tread is narrower, thereby providing reduced rolling resistance for improved fuel efficiency. When at high speeds, the tire patch is wider to help maximize grip.

Funny thing: no matter how many concept tires there are, it always seems that those used on production vehicles look like. . .tires.