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Innovation Gets Tired, Part 2: The Energy Return Wheel

By Rain Noe - December 28, 2011

in Cars

Inventor Brian Russell's Energy Return Wheel is another non-pneumatic tire, but whereas Resilient Technologies' NPT is passive, this one active absorbs and releases energy. As its name implies, the ERW spins shock absorption events into a modicum of forward motion. And interestingly enough Russell came up with the idea while designing sneakers whose soles would deliver energy returns.

Here's the intro video, which is too long by half, but scanning through it will give you the basic idea:

The following video, which I'm guessing was produced by tire and rubber manufacturer Britek after they licensed the ERW technology, uses a little more CG to give you an idea of how the thing actually works:

ERW stopped updating their website around '08 or '09, so I initially figured this was another tech that had fallen by the wayside; but someone from ERW has still been fielding queries on YouTube as recently as yesterday, so presumably the product is just trapped in development hell.

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Michael Byrne

10 years ago

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Update:
This company/individual is a scam.

There is no longer a "Britek Tire and Rubber" company.
The 'inventor" appears to be making a living collecting money with the offer of delivering custom wheels... and never delivers.
I'm one of his victims.
I sent him a $750 cashier's check. (He won't take any credit card) PLUS my wheels/tires... for stated delivery within 3 weeks.
It's now been 5 months with nothing. 3 months ago he stopped returning my calls.
As it turns out, he has a history of this and his "office" is a storage facility. Check out his address yourself.
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Amir

12 years ago

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i think that there is a big problem concerning the moving of the wheel from side to side (left to right to left...).
i can see only thin bolts that hold the tire and they may not be enough
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curious onlooker

12 years ago

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To answer Mike B, I hope you can replace it (It seems likely from the video) but at the same time, I was interested in replacing or augmenting it for conditions. I could see being able to swap out the road-meeting surface for conditions (snow tires, studded or just deeply grooved and channelled) as needed. That would be very useful. That one component would be much cheaper to make/replace than the whole tire, as we do now. And one of the main reasons we do this is to punctures due to road hazards.

Now if we combine this idea with the compressed air powered motor mentioned in the past week or so and/or regenerative braking, we're looking at some efficiencies.
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Mike B.

12 years ago

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I see how it works, it's a cool concept, but there are issues that would still need to be addressed. One, they still use rubber which will in-fact wear down and still need to be replaced. Two, how much will it cost to replace the rubber section. Three how much will cost to develop the tools and machinery to do service on it? Four, how much torque can the suspension system withstand. Five how durable is it on rough city streets?
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