Sumitomo Opens Tyre Technical Centre

Kobe, Japan based Sumitomo Rubber Industries celebrates its 100th anniversary during 2009, and this red-letter year for the company has seen the inauguration of its new Tyre Technical Centre. A ceremony to celebrate the opening of the new centre – which Sumitomo says will “play a major role in heritage and creation of technologies to enable the company to continue to grow in the next hundred years – was held on September 17.

Covering a floor space of 10,520 square metres and built at a cost of five billion yen (£33.5 million), the new facility contains eco-friendly and safety features such as a rooftop garden, solar panels and Sumitomo’s own GRAST vibration absorption technology. The centre is expected to play a main role in the future development of eco-friendly products such as fuel-efficient tyres in the future. The development of tyres containing no fossil fuels is one project the centre will reportedly work on. Another is the development of tyres with 50 per cent lower rolling resistance.