Tire scraping is used across various forms of car racing that involves a person scraping off excess rubber and debris from racing tires in an effort to increase its longevity. Unfortunately, current methods involve taxing manual labor in often unsafe conditions, with the most common method involving physically scraping debris using a blow torch and putty knife. For my capstone project, a team of six students, including myself, wanted to work with local go-kart racing teams on campus to create a new tire scrapping product that is more time efficient, cost effective, and above all, safe for the user to operate.

Our idea was to attach a tire to a gear motor shaft coupler assembly, which would then rotate the tire clockwise at a speed determined by the user, contained into an aluminum frame. An internally heated blade would then be pushed inwards at a certain depth to scrape the excess material off the tire. The motor speed, blade temperature, and scraping depth would all be determined based on user preference.