Kumho injecting new blood into US range
Seven all-new tyre lines are set to enter the Kumho Tire USA portfolio in 2015, and the company says from now on it will refresh its North American range every year.
Seven all-new tyre lines are set to enter the Kumho Tire USA portfolio in 2015, and the company says from now on it will refresh its North American range every year.
An all-new version of the best-selling truck in the USA – the Ford F-150 – is now arriving at dealers, and Goodyear reports it is supplying tyres to four F-150 models. The Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure will be supplied to the 2015 Ford F-150 XL, XLT, Lariat and King Ranch models in sizes 275/55R20, LT 245/70R17 and LT275/65R18, and the Wrangler Fortitude supplied in HT in 275/65R18 and 265/70R17.
Pirelli’s motorsport director reports that changes to its Formula One tyres, particularly the soft tyre, led to increased possibilities for different race strategies in the 2014 F1 season. This year’s tyres, Paul Hembery explains, were a departure from those supplied to teams between 2011 and 2013: “After three years of making tyres that feature deliberate degradation, in accordance with our brief, this year’s revolutionary new rules with turbocharging and increased torque prompted the need for more consistent and predictable tyres, leading to the same average number of pit stops per race (2 or 3).” The average total pit stops seen in a race during the 2014 season was 44, seven less than in the previous season.
It was decided at yesterday’s meeting of Continental AG’s Supervisory Board that, as of 1 May 2015, Hans-Jürgen Duensing will join the company’s Executive Board and simultaneously take charge of the ContiTech division. He will take over from Heinz-Gerhard Wente, who has requested the termination of his contract on 30 April, thus ending a career with Continental spanning more than forty years.
Figures for new truck vehicle registrations have revealed 2014 has been a “predictably slow year” as the market continues to feel the effects of the introduction of Euro 6 legislation, according to UK managing director for Continental, David Smith.
Smith, who in 2013 was promoted into a wider European market management role, which now includes Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, was speaking at Continental’s annual market trends briefing on 5 December. During his presentation he described the results for 2014 as “unsurprising”, due in part to the rush to register Euro 5 models before the legislative cut-off dates. Year-to-date figures released by the SMMT have shown that total registrations for trucks in 2014 are down by nine per cent, with bus and coach registrations also down this year, by three per cent.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries is saying g’day to Australia through a joint venture with Sumitomo Corporation to establish a tyre sales corporation in the country. Sumitomo Rubber Australia Pty. Ltd. is expected to begin operating in March 2015 and strengthen Sumitomo Rubber Industries’ replacement market consumer tyre sales in Australia. The Sydney-based office is being set up with a capital investment of AU$20 million (£10.6 million), with Sumitomo Rubber Industries and Sumitomo Corporation respectively holding a 75 per cent and 25 per cent share in the operation. Representative Kenichi Furuhama will manage approximately 60 Sumitomo Rubber Australia employees.
The Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) is highlighting the new Quality Protocol option (QP) accompanying the existing Publically Available Specification (PAS) 107:12, which covers the Manufacture and Storage of Size-Reduced Tyre-Derived Materials.
You might not think of Kazakhstan as a centre of the international tyre industry and – on a global scale – it isn’t. However, in light of renewed reports of factory investment from Indonesian-based Multistrada as well as the historical context of Nokian’s ill-fated joint-venture there it is worth reporting a little of what else is going on in the country.
The Bloodhound Project, an ambitious British bid to set a new world land speed record in a supersonic car, has received a power boost from Atlas Copco UK. The company has supplied a range of workshop compressors and air tools to the Bloodhound Technical Centre in Bristol and its associated test facility at Newquay Aerohub.
The equipment will play a pivotal role in the development of the Bloodhound Supersonic Car, the jet engine and rocket powered racing car, as the team prepares for an attempt to set a new 1,000mph world land speed record in 2016.
“With the winter weather approaching we expect to see demand for motorcycles at a yearly low, however it is encouraging to see that sales in November were up 14.5 per cent compared to 2013”, said Stephen Latham, Head of the National Motorcycle Dealers Association (NMDA) which represents motorcycle retailers across the UK.
In total 5,795 bikes were registered in November – an increase of 734 more units more than November 2013.
A £15 million investment by the Highways Agency will add thousands of new chargepoints at key locations across the UK’s road network and is set to be completed by 2020.
It will mean that 95 per cent of the time, motorists will be no more than 20 miles from a chargepoint. Wherever feasible these will be rapid chargers, which are capable of charging an electric vehicle to 80 per cent of capacity in less than 30 minutes.
Researchers at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory are aiming are advocating tyre pyrolysis as a way of recovering carbon black for use as a graphite substitute in lithium-ion batteries. The goal is to scale up the recovery process and demonstrate applications as anodes for lithium-ion batteries in large-format “pouch cells”. These batteries could then be used in plug-in electric vehicles and to store energy produced by wind and solar sources.
During the course of 2014, Goodyear’s FleetFirst fleet tyre management programme has enjoyed considerable growth throughout Europe. Goodyear Dunlop reports that 75 fleets from nine countries have joined the programme since the start of the year, bringing a total of more than 30,000 additional vehicles into FleetFirst. The new additions to FleetFirst include pan-European fleets based in France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom. Arguably the best-known of these fleets is Eddie Stobart, which operates more than 5,000 vehicles, while another large UK-based fleet to sign up during the year is Turners Soham Ltd, which operates more than 2,500 vehicles.
Those wishing to submit papers for the European Tyre Recycling Association’s 22nd Annual European Tyre Recycling Conference have five days left – the ETRA has set 15 December 2014 as the deadline for its first call for papers. The association urges “anyone serious about developing a tyre recycling project” not to miss out on next year’s event.
According to Indonesian news agency Antara News, tyre maker PT Multistrada Arah Sarana – manufacturer of the Achilles, Corsa and Strada tyre brands – has signed a contract to build a production facility in Kazakhstan. The agency quotes Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Indonesia, Ashkat Orazbay, as stating that “a contract has been signed between Multistrada Indonesia and a Kazakhstan-based company to build a tyre factory.” Antara News did not report the name of the Kazakhstani company or give any further details about the project.
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