Almost all motorized vehicles and bicycles are equipped with pneumatic tires with only a very small fraction of vehicles such as those used for heavy construction and mining equipped with solid tires. The pneumatic tires and tubes are susceptible to punctures especially when the road conditions are poor or under offroad conditions. Tire puncture is a common occurrence on Indian roads and solutions to reduce its occurrence under existing road conditions is a challenging task. One of the approaches to its mitigation is the use of tire/tube liquid sealant. The sealant fills the inside of the tire/tube, and occupies a small fraction of the volume of the inflated tire. The liquid remains in the liquid state and coats the inner surface of the rotating tire. When the tire suffers a puncture, the high air pressure inside the tire pushes the sealant into the hole. The sealant is expected to instantly seal the puncture hole with minimal pressure loss thereby allowing the vehicle to be driven without stoppages/breakdown.

We have been working on a formulation of a tire sealant that is economical, seals holes greater than 8 mm (preferably 9 mm) and has an operating temperature range of -50 deg C to 80 deg C, and must continue to function through the lifespan of the tire. To our knowledge, none of the existing sealants meet the aforementioned conditions. We propose to design/synthesize tire sealants for tube and tubeless tires. These will be extensively tested on tires and tubes before embarking on commercialization.