Nitrogen Inflated Tyres for Cars

Towing a car to the petrol pump station after every few days to check air pressure is a tedious job. This can be avoided by inflating the tyres with Nitrogen as pure Nitrogen once pumped into the tyres retains the pressure for about six months. Besides this, it has many other advantages.



Compressed air which is normally used to inflate car tyres is a mixture of 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, 1% water vapour and other gases. Oxygen reacts very easily and when introduced into the tyres through compressed air penetrates the tyre walls and causes under inflation. This also causes the decaying of the rubber particles. Additionally, in an air inflated tyre, as oxygen enters through rubber there are possibilities of steel belts and the steel bead rusting.



Oxidation further lead to overheating reducing the life of the tyre and may also results in blow outs. An under-inflated tyre is very much prone to friction resulting in steering problem.



Whereas Nitrogen is a inert gas. Nitrogen is cooler, lighter, and does not cause any kind of rust on the steel or aluminium rims. As Nitrogen inflated tyre does not heat up, the life of the tyre is longer, braking is efficient, and also gives good fuel economy.



Nitrogen is pumped into the tyres with the help of ‘nitrogen inflators’ which generates nitrogen from the atmospheric air. The inflators cost around Rs 3 Lakh in India. Since it involves a heavy investment, the petrol pump operators are forced to charge for filling the tyres with Nitrogen. Unlike the Nitrogen gas filling, compressed air is available in most of the gas stations in the country without any charge. The Nitrogen gas filling cost ranges from Rs 100 to Rs 200 per vehicle and can be filled in any kind of tyre.Advantages of Nitrogen Filled Tyres Easy FillingUnlike compressed air filled tyres, it do not requires regular filling. The tyre pressure only need to checked every six months to enjoy a smooth drive. Moreover replacing compressed air with Nitrogen is a very simple process. All the air should be completely removed from the tyres ensuring the tyre is entirely devoid of air and then the Nitrogen can be filled. Even tubeless tyres can be inflated with Nitrogen gas without any hassle. Nowadays many garages are now offering Nitrogen fills for tyres instead of conventional air filling.



Improves Fuel Efficiency
As Nitrogen molecules are lighter than compressed air, it imparts very less load on the car keeping the weight at low scale which in turn improves the fuel efficiency by 5%. It ensure minimum leakage and maintains a proper pressure inside the tyre compared to compressed air which further helps to get good fuel efficiency.



Reduces Corrosion
There is no moisture in the pure Nitrogen therefore the nitrogen filled tyres are rust free. Crude nitrogen can also be treated to reduce the amount of water vapour before making available for filling.



Eco-Friendly Nature
Nitrogen is a colourless, odourless, and non-toxic gas that forms about 78% of the Earth's atmosphere. Nitrogen is much cooler and does not heat up the inner lining of the tyre (rubber) which gives out toxic gases that are not environment friendly. As mentioned above, Nitrogen inflated tyres increases fuel efficiency which eventually reduces CO2 emission. Thus Nitrogen inflated tyres are eco-friendly compared to conventional tyres.



Long Life
In the air inflated tyres, when other material blend with oxygen it causes oxidization. Oxidisation ages the rubber resulting in poor strength. Air tyres also sometime experiences high temperature which cause tyre blow out. In contrast, use of Nitrogen in tyres increases its life up to 25%.



Safety
Nitrogen inflated tyres are much safer than the air filled tyres. 90 percent of compressed air filled tyres often burst due to pressure drop which in many cases is the cause of car accidents. While Nitrogen helps to maintain a accurate tyre pressure reducing the chances of blow out and hence any road mishap. Moreover, Nitrogen being a inert gas have no fire risk. This is the reason why they are mostly used in Formula 1 and other race cars.

Improves Ride QualityThough not very significant, still nitrogen inflated tyres are believed to enhance the ride quality of a car. This is mainly due to its light nature.



Disadvantages of Nitrogen Filled TyresCost - Filling tyres with nitrogen is costly compared to compressed air. Nitrogen inflated tyres also require more maintenance.



Availability - Nitrogen gas is not available at any petrol pump station. They generally found with specialist tyre dealers service centres.



Pressure Maintenance – The pressure of Nitrogen inflated tyres if not adjusted at optimum level may counteract the advantages of nitrogen inflation. Even addition of a small amount compressed air would affects the tyre performance.



Nitrogen used in other Arena Apart from Private Motoring•NASCAR - NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) teams use nitrogen as it helps to predict the tyre fluctuation accurately. Though nitrogen fluctuates with temperature change, but it is comparatively lesser than conventional air.

•Commercial Airlines – All the commercial aircraft tyres are Nitrogen inflated. This helps to resist the freezing of water vapour at high altitudes which would give an unbalanced situation when landing. Some of the aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing use nitrogen membranes in their On-Board Inert Gas Generation Systems (OBIGGS). The OBIGGS is an on-board system that uses dry nitrogen-enriched air "blanket" for the fuel tank instead of flammable fuel-air mixture. This on-board system reduces the risk of fire inside the aircraft engine thereby ensuring safety.