Cooper Tire completes fuel efficient tyre project, exceeds targets

Tyre development teams at Cooper Tire & Rubber have exceeded the goals set for it under a US government project, the tyre maker reports. These results were in part achieved by utilising materials that Cooper says are not used in tyres currently available on the market. Looking forward, the various technologies developed during the project will be put together in a single concept tyre, and Cooper is evaluating the use of technologies in commercial applications.

The company received a $1.5 million grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in order to develop technology for light vehicle tyres that deliver a minimum three per cent improvement in vehicle fuel efficiency while lowering average tyre weight by at least 20 per cent, without sacrificing performance. Work on the project is now complete, and Cooper claims the concept tyres it developed achieved a 5.5 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency and weight reductions ranging from 23 per cent to 37 per cent.

The grant period began in late 2011 and continued through the end of 2014, with Cooper recently presenting its findings to the DOE. Tyre development work under the grant was performed at Cooper’s North America and Global Technical Centre, both located in Findlay, Ohio.

“The technical challenges presented by this programme were significant, yet the work was extremely gratifying as we addressed sustainability and performance,” said Chuck Yurkovich, Cooper’s senior vice-president of global research and development. “Improving vehicle fuel efficiency by a minimum of three per cent was accomplished by developing a product with more than 30 per cent lower rolling resistance. Reducing tyre weight by a minimum of 20 per cent required us to make a product that is five to six pounds (2.3 to 2.7kg) lighter than the baseline 26-pound (11.8kg) tyre. All of this was accomplished without any trade-offs in performance or durability.

“Our innovative approach was to develop a new energy efficient tyre profile and design in combination with an ultra-lightweight tyre construction,” Yurkovich added. “The process utilised innovative materials not typically used in tyres today. In all, we developed and evaluated six new technologies as part of the programme’s first phase. We also evaluated the holistic impact of putting all of these technologies into a concept tyre in the programme’s second phase. Combining these advancements allowed us to reach and exceed the grant’s aggressive goals. We are extremely proud of the team’s achievements.”

As a result of the grant work, Cooper has already incorporated new tyre modelling technology into its development process and is evaluating long wearing and fuel efficient tread compound technology for use in future tyres for the replacement and original equipment markets. Other technologies are being further developed for potential commercial applications in the future. “While we have more work to do to fully assess commercial viability of some of these new features, we certainly have taken leaps forward in developing tyre technologies with strong potential for consumer benefit,” Yurkovich concluded.