FEDIL award for optimised Goodyear UHP tyre development

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has optimised its ultra-high-performance (UHP) tyre development process by combining different techniques and disciplines through a statistical model, and this achievement has resulted in the receipt of a FEDIL 2022 Innovation Award. The Luxembourg-based multisectoral business federation recognised Goodyear’s efforts with an accolade in the ‘Process’ category of its awards.

The tyre maker explains that more than 50 performance criteria must be considered when developing a tyre with improved performance, with each design combination influencing the final product. Most of these criteria are antagonistic, for example maximising wet performance and minimising rolling resistance. Goodyear’s new approach streamlines the development of new material concepts and uses all tyre design parameters to simulate overall product performance, in particular the characteristics of the tread rubber, the dimensions of the curing moulds and the way the elements are arranged in the model.

“This new process is a major step on our journey towards digital and sustainable development,” comments Xavier Fraipont, Goodyear’s vice-president for product development in Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Through this combination of multifactor optimisation and state-of-the-art virtual tools, we better understand the interactions between components and proven performance. Applied for the first time in our summer ultra-high-performance segment, this innovative process delivered both development efficiencies and magazine-winning performance.”

Goodyear developed the Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 using the new process. It reports that this resulted in many performance improvements such as dry performance, wet braking, wet handling and electric vehicle suitability.