Tire balancing beads are glass beads that you put in your tires and they supposedly fix unbalanced tires. This contraptions tests the idea with ball bearings.
source.image: Steve Mould
Tire balance, also called tire unbalance or tire imbalance, describes the distribution of mass within an automobile tire or the entire wheel (including the rim) on which it is mounted.
When the wheel rotates, asymmetries in its mass distribution may cause it to apply periodic forces and torques to the axle, which can cause ride disturbances, usually as vertical and lateral vibrations, and this may also cause the steering wheel to oscillate.
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Balancing Beads are the economical way to balance the vehicle wheel assembly for the lifetime of the tire. Made of coated glass spheres, our balancing beads will not cause damage to the inner liner of the tire, they also won’t clump. Balance beads are literally just small temperated glass balls that you insert inside a tire. They’re designed to be large enough not to fall inside the valve stem, but small enough that they’re lightweight and able to easily flow around inside the tire. The idea is that in the course of normal driving, the beads will bounce around inside the tire and end up in the right position to counteract any imbalances in the wheel.
