Tires could trade studs for garnets

POWELL BUTTE, Ore.—With studded tires being increasingly banned from the roads, inventor James Scheller has what he believes is the ideal alternative: Garnets.

A semi-precious silicate stone that comes in a range of colors, garnets are best known for use in costume jewelry, especially when the stones are red.

However, Scheller—owner of Garnetread, a business based in Powell Butte—has long championed industrial-grade garnets as a way to greatly improve tire traction and control when added to tread rubber, without the damage to road surfaces that studs can cause.

In April 1978, Scheller obtained a patent on the Garnetread technology, and applied in April 2019 for a second patent that includes a formula to improve the adhesion of garnets to tread rubber.

"The garnets become part of the tire itself," Scheller said. "Testing shows less wear on pavement and concrete and better traction and stopping distances than (with) regular rubber and studs."

According to Scheller, he got the idea for Garnetread after he graduated from Washington State University and was driving a truck for his family business.

At that time, he met John Cook, a professor emeritus and research engineer at WSU. Cook was working on a technology to add industrial-grade garnets to paving materials to resist damage from tire studs, and Scheller—who had extensive experience with driving a truck over icy and snow-covered roads—thought that adding garnets to tread rubber would create a tire with excellent traction that would not damage roads.

Tires made with Garnetread have been independently tested by WSU on dry, wet, snowy and icy pavements, according to the Garnetread website. They also have been tested by the U.S. Department of Transportation and by other independent testing groups in Washington and Oregon, it said.

"Vehicles equipped with Garnetread tires stop on ice in a shorter distance than the same vehicle equipped with studded tires while facilitating positive control," the website said.

Washington, Oregon, Michigan and Minnesota have designated tires using the Garnetread technology as approved traction devices, according to Scheller.

"To the best of our knowledge, all 50 states have had Garnetread rubber truck precure on their road systems," he said.

Garnetread also has contacted the Federal Aviation Administration about the process for certifying aircraft tires using Garnetread, according to Scheller.

To date more than 100,000 tires have been manufactured using Garnetread's technology, according to Scheller. The process involves mixing garnets with rubber in the mill and then cutting the tread rubber to size for precure molds, he said.

Oliver Tire & Rubber Co. made retreaded tires using the Garnetread process before the company was sold to Michelin, according to Scheller. Oregon Tread Rubber Co. of Eugene, Ore., also made some tires for Garnetread, he said.

Garnetread has received offers from China to make tires there, but the company has no interest in tire manufacturing, according to Scheller.

"We don't want to make or sell tires," he said. "Our goal is to license and sell technology, and act as advisers."

At this time, Eastern Tire Service of Nova Scotia and Treadwright Tires of Texas make tires using Garnetread technology for Garnetread's own testing and use, according to Scheller.

Garnetread also has contacted Michelin and General Motors about the possibility of using garnets in Uptis airless mobility technology development, Scheller said. "We are waiting for a response from them."