Cooper Tire grant emphasises ‘renewed commitment’ to technical capabilities
Elaborating on news of a recent US$1.5 million grant received from a US Department of Energy (DOE) agency, Cooper Tire & Rubber says the funding will go towards accelerating the “development and refinement of innovative tyre design, construction, materials and reinforcement technologies focused on the replacement tyre market.” The grant from the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy calls for Cooper to develop an ultra lightweight tyre that delivers a minimum three per cent improvement in vehicle fuel efficiency. The anticipated timeframe for achieving this breakthrough is three years.
Development of this new technology will be carried out in Cooper’s North America technical centre in Findlay, Ohio and at its US production facilities. As part of its research, the tyre maker will also partner with the DOE-run National Renewable Energy Laboratory, utilising this facility to undertake a modelling and computational analysis of the new technology’s impact on improved tyre performance.
“We are excited about the opportunity to further accelerate our development of innovative technologies that brings significant improvements in fuel efficiency to the market while increasing overall customer value,” stated Chuck Yurkovich, Cooper’s vice president of global technology. “This is an important step in the effort to reduce our national energy dependence on foreign sources of oil and raw materials.
“This grant accentuates a renewed commitment and emphasis by Cooper to leverage our technical capabilities,” Yurkovich added. “Ultimately this will bring increased value and benefits to end-users. It presents us with the opportunity to expand our efforts beyond traditional areas and ultimately to bring new lightweight fuel efficient products to the public much more rapidly.”
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