# Timezone Check (3 hours) | The SMART Tire Company

- Canonical URL: https://wefunder.com/feed/307374
- Entity ID: wefunder:feed_item:307374
- Published at: 2026-04-24 01:07:56 UTC
- Updated at: 2026-04-24 01:08:06 UTC

## Author
Brian Yennie

## Subject
The SMART Tire Company

## Content
Counting down for our west coast folks, don't forget that we wrap at 9pm!Did you know? Steel, aluminum and titanium all followed a similar pattern to mass market. Steel took 3000 years to perfect. Now it's a $2 trillion industry. Aluminum and Titanium took less than 100.Nitinol is just now entering the mass market phase, with all of the major drivers in place. Combined with AI-enhanced material discovery and manufacturing, it's ready to explode.Imagine investing in railroads during the steel boom, aluminum in the 1920s, or titanium products at the birth of modern aerospace? Electrical wiring during the advent of copper? The list goes on with nickel, zinc, stainless steel, and more...That's where we are -- a materials revolution in the making, with nitinol tires as the catalyst.Steel (1800s - present)Discovery: ancient (~1800 BC)Mass Market: late 1800sDriver: Railroads, bridges, infrastructureBreakthroughs: industrial revolutionCopper (1800s - present)Discovery: ancient (earliest metal alloy, Bronze Age, medieval usage)Mass Market: late 1800sDriver: Electricity, then modern electrificationBreakthroughs: industrial evolution, electrical propertiesAluminum (1920s - present)Discovery: mid-1850sMass Market: late 1920sDriver: Aircraft, consumer goods, demand for lightweight metalsBreakthroughs: Hall–Héroult, Bayer process, alloying technologyTitanium (1950s - present)Discovery: 1791 (elemental -- too reactive to process)Mass Market: late 1950sDriver: Aerospace, military, strength-to-weightBreakthroughs: Kroll process process (extraction), advanced alloysNitinol (2000s - present)Discovery: 1960sMass Market: 2000s (medical), 2020s (tires)Driver: Biomedical, space, tires, compliant metal structuresBreakthroughs: VIM/VAR melting, microstructure refinement, advanced alloys, phase transformation physicsReady to be part of a materials revolution?