A tyre is made of many layers and processes, there are over 200 compounds in the making of a tyre.

Rubber tyres have been made for over one hundred years, initially they had a separate rubber tube loosely fitted to the inside, the tube had the qualities to hold the air pressure. Nowadays, nearly all tyres are fitted to the wheel without a tube commonly called a “tubeless” tyre. In the diagram above you will see the inner liner of the tyre is made of Halobutyl rubber and this has the qualities to hold the air inside the chamber and the bead area is a tight fit against the lip of the wheel to complete the seal.

The beige area are the body plies, these materials make up the strength of the tyre and determines the shape as well. These plies are made of either of these three materials- Rayon, Polyester or Nylon. Originally, tyres were made by crossing the layers over each other diagonally, they were then called cross-ply tyres. In the middle of the twentieth century the leading tyre companies started developing tyres with the plies radiating from the centre of the tyre, thus called them radial tyres. Pretty much all tyres are radial construction now.

The blue section is the steel belting, tyres are commonly built with two layers of steel belting with the top layer slightly narrower. The steel belts are made of very fine high tensile wire coated with brass and impregnated with the rubber to make a belt of rubber with steel inside. The main purpose of the steel belts are to help the tyre roll along in a straight manner and reduce the squirm that occurs at the road surface, the benefits are greater control of the steering and longer tread life. The nylon overlays and gum strips help keep the other components around them in place and alleviate overheating of the tyre. The chafer and apex are varied between makes and models due to road comfort requirements.