Bridgestone: ologic and green approach make ‘sustainable sense’

With Bridgestone claiming to ‘lead the way in quality, technologically innovative goods,’ it is unsurprising to hear of the brand’s significant advances in the area of sustainability and ‘green tyres.’ Bridgestone used the Geneva Motor Show 2013 as a platform to announce the successful development of the new ‘ologic technology tyre’ as large and narrow concept. The launch of the ologic is one of Bridgestone’s initiatives to achieve the goal of ‘contributing to globally agreed target (50 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions)” defined for the group’s efforts toward reducing CO2 emissions in its long-term environmental vision.

Ologic represents a new category of tyre that is narrower and features a larger diameter than conventional tyres. It was created as a new environmental technology to enable tyres to help realise a sustainable society. The name is derived from EcOlogy (reduced rolling resistance) and Optimised Logic (Shape, aerodynamics). The ologic technology is designed to help vehicles achieve improved fuel efficiency, thereby contributing to reductions in CO2 emissions.

Moreover, the air pressure within these tyres is higher than conventional tyres, and the design includes new pattern technology and compounds designed specifically for use in these tyres. The new ologic innovative technology enables the tyre to realize significantly lower levels of rolling resistance and substantially higher levels of wet grip performance.

Bridgestone also exhibited a concept tyre at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, which represented an example of Bridgestone’s use of advanced materials technologies to achieve the commitment of using ‘100 per cent sustainable materials’ in its tyre manufacturing for 2050 and beyond. The development of the concept tyre is the result of collaborative efforts with a number of resources, including academia.

Bridgestone’s communications manager Andy Dingley said: “In order to achieve the level of 100% sustainable materials, Bridgestone is diversifying the regions where it produces natural rubber and also expanding the range of reinforced plant fibres it uses. Additionally, fossil resource based components such as synthetic rubber, carbon black and rubber compounding agents in the tyre were synthesized from biomass.”

As a next step in the process, the Bridgestone Group will establish a framework of research and development and initiate the necessary core technologies to begin mass production. Further, Bridgestone is targeting the year 2020 for commercial sales of certain sustainable materials used in the manufacturing process.