An automobile’s tires are one of the most vulnerable parts of an automobile. There are basically three main causes of tire failures: road hazards, design defects, and manufacturing defects. In addition to obvious hazards such as potholes and foreign objects in the road, tires may be prone to failure prior to being installed on your car. This is because tires are susceptible to design defects, manufacturing defects, problematic storage prior to installation, and deterioration of the rubber. All of these factors can cause a tire to fail. When a tire fails, it often makes the automobile very difficult to control and places the automobile’s occupants at risk of significant injury or death.
A design defect exists when an error occurs in the engineering of the tire, as opposed to a mistake or oversight that occurred during the manufacturing of that tire. Design defects can occur when the wrong size or type of material is specified to be used when the tire is constructed during the manufacturing process. For example, a tire wedge that is too thin has been shown to be a deign defect in certain tires that were later recalled. Tires use steel bands inside the tire’s rubber tread in order to provide cohesiveness and strength, and hold the tire together. A tire’s wedge is a triangular, or “wedge,” shaped band of rubber that runs long both ends of the tire’s steel belts. It’s role is to create a barrier – or buffer – between the metal bands that are required to give the tire strength, and the tire’s rubber walls that are required to hold the tire together. Without wedges, the steel bands can rub, wear down, or puncture the tire’s structural walls and cause at least a puncture and leak, or worse a potentially fatal blowout or de-tread. Tire manufacturers have an incentive to minimize the size of tire wedges not only to reduce the amount of materials used and save money in the tire manufacturing process, but also to eliminate uneven bumps or ridges in the tire’s tread that could result from the use of larger wedges. When tire wedges are too thin or nonexistent, however, they can experience catastrophic failures.
A manufacturing defect is the opposite of a design defect. With a manufacturing defect, the engineering and planning of the tire is acceptable, but something went wrong in the actual construction, or manufacture, of the tire such that the tire produced deviates from the tire’s original design. Examples of manufacturing defects occur when the factory lacks quality control procedures and proper oversight over the manufacturing process. One example of a tire-manufacturing defect occurs when the steel belts within a tire are not properly aligned, or are “snaked,” with each other. These steel belts are designed to be layered on top of each other in alignment, and when this occurs they bond together to become stronger than each belt is individually. When, through a mistake in the manufacturing process, these belts are not properly lined together, they do not properly bond and the tire is not sufficiently reinforced. Another example of when a tire-manufacturing defect can occur is when these steel belts are not laid flatly, and they allow air pockets to form between them. These air pockets also prevent bonding of the steel belts, resulting in a similarly weak tire because the two belts are not acting together. The tire benefits from only the strength of one belt, not the designed two belts bonded together. Manufacturing defects can be sporadic, when only one tire of many contains the mistake. Manufacturing defects can also be systemic, when one certain step in the manufacturing process is repeatedly performed incorrectly. As a result, manufacturing defects are usually not capable of being detected until after the tire fails.
Written By:
Karleigh Zolinski
Approved by Francisco Guerra, IV
Watts Guerra LLP
4 Dominion Drive, Bldg 3, Suite 100
San Antonio, Texas 78257
Phone (210) 447-0500
