- Title: New invention makes putting on snow chains easy
- Date: 19th January 2017
- Summary: VARIOUS OF AUTOMATIC CHAIN COMPUTER ANIMATION
- Embargoed: 2nd February 2017 16:05
- Keywords: Czech snow cars snow chains
- Location: OVCARNA AND VRBNO POD PRADEDEM, CZECH REPUBLIC
- City: OVCARNA AND VRBNO POD PRADEDEM, CZECH REPUBLIC
- Country: Czech Republic
- Topics: Human Interest/Brights/Odd News,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA0025ZQY14P
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Putting on snow chains in winter is necessary and can save your life but it is a tedious task. Cold winds bite into the fingers, the vision is often poor, snow and ice clog up the tyres.
But Petr Gross has found a solution for that: snow chains that unfold around the tyres with a push of a button.
Gross owns a small factory producing optical parts for car lights and other plastic car parts. He had the idea to develop some kind of easy-to-put-on snow chains some three years ago when he himself encountered difficulties putting on regular chains on his tyres in the middle of the night. After three year of development he proudly presents his first automatic chains made mostly of plastic, steel and lot of electronics.
"The anti-sliding function is located here on the grabs, and have steel spikes which are used for hard ice and plastic ones which are used in snow," Gross told Reuters.
The chain basis is mounted onto the car tyre in the comfort of the garage. The actual chains stay in their cases and come only into action when needed. And that is the very easy part. With the push of a button (or actually two) on a remote control, the chains come out of their cases and fold around the tyres. The driver decides when they are necessary. When the chains are no longer needed, they retract in the cases just as easily by pushing the button again.
"We see a future use of the chains mainly for trucks and buses because those vehicles mostly have only summer tyres and no special tyres for the winter, and the use of some anti-slips or chains is crucial for them," Gros says. "This device is very simple to put on and easy to handle and that's why we thing it has a great future."
Gross holds the patent for his automatic chains in the Czech Republic and has applied for it in other countries as well, because he plans to make them available not only in Europe, but also in Russia and overseas in the U.S. and Canada. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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