A tyre with a tread enhanced with single wall carbon nanotubes was exposed to accelerated wear and handling simulation tests by Akron Rubber Development Laboratory. Analysis of captured airborne particles showed no free-standing nanotubes, according to Luxembourg-based OCSiAl, which produces carbon nanotubes.
Darkness descended upon The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company’s former headquarters almost a decade ago. At any rate the illuminated sign atop the building ceased functioning, and this is something that Goodyear and a partner have rectified in the runup to the tyre maker’s 125 anniversary.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber is working to ensure its former employees in the USA receive their company pensions following issues with some payments being made. According to the Akron Beacon Journal, a daily newspaper based in Goodyear’s hometown, pensions were due to be paid last Saturday. The publication quotes Doug Grassian, Goodyear’s director of global external and digital communications, as saying the company is working to fix the problem.
On 19 September 2022, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co was found guilty of misappropriating five of 12 alleged trade secrets relating to self-inflating tyres in a case brought by Czech company Coda Development SRO. As a result of the jury’s verdict, Coda was awarded a total of $64 million.
The Firestone Polymer Engineering Pilot Center (PEPC) in Akron, Ohio has become the first Bridgestone facility in North America to gain International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) Plus recognition for sustainable raw material transparency and traceability. PEPC is part of the Bridgestone Americas Technology Center, which serves as a hub for Bridgestone’s entire innovation, research and product development within the Americas region.
An opening ceremony took place yesterday for Bridgestone’s new racing tyre manufacturing facility in the USA. The inauguration of the Advanced Tire Production Center (ATPC) in Akron, Ohio provides Bridgestone Americas with the means of enhancing the efficiency and sustainability of its race tyre production. Housing a team of 60, the US$21 million plant will manufacture all Firestone Firehawk race tyres for the NTT IndyCar Series.
Bridgestone is enhancing its tyre development capabilities in the USA with an expansion to its Americas Technology Center campus in Akron, Ohio. The project includes the construction of a new vehicle dynamics test track that will facilitate the development of future tyre technologies by allowing team members to drive prototypes first-hand and thus quickly ascertain which further enhancements are necessary. The track will also supplement tyre testing operations currently performed at Bridgestone’s Proving Grounds in Texas, Ohio, Mexico, and South America.
Akron Rubber Development Laboratory, Inc. (ARDL) has purchased all Experimental Services Inc’s (ESI) assets on 16 October, ARDL announced in a statement on 5 November. ESI describes itself as, “An engineering laboratory for engineers and researchers.” Providing static, dynamic, fatigue and vibration testing for the past thirty years, ESI’s focus has “allowed it to become the best at what it does” ARDL stated.
Triangle Tire USA has named Brad Wurst as senior development engineer of A3T, the company’s technical centre in Akron, Ohio. Wurst joins Triangle from Smithers where he has worked since March 2018. Prior to Smithers, Wurst spent more than seven years with Cooper Tire & Rubber, including a one-year assignment as a truck tyre development engineer at the company’s facility in Shanghai, China. Before that Wurst was spent 20 years with Bridgestone Americas.
Smithers, which provides testing and consultancy services, has upgraded its low temperature retraction instrumentation and capabilities at its rubber physical testing laboratory in Akron, Ohio. According to the company, the new instrument offers improved temperature control for low temperature retraction and the instrument is said to be significantly more efficient, which will improve turnaround times for customers.
According to a report emanating from Goodyear’s hometown, the tyre maker intends to bring its regional headquarters for Latin America back to company headquarters in Akron (Ohio, US) next year. The Akron Beacon Journal wrote on 16 December that efforts to relocate the headquarters in São Paulo, Brazil will begin early in 2015 with the transfer of senior management to Akron. Goodyear will spend several months evaluating which other positions it will move from São Paulo to the US, the Akron Beacon Journal added. The headquarters has been based in São Paulo since 2005, after it was moved from Akron.
Goodyear has confirmed what many must have already realised – tyre makers build factories in economically favourable sites. The US doesn’t top any list of low-cost locations, and therefore the bid its home town launched to host a new factory planned for the Americas was always going to be a long shot. Akron City Council nevertheless declared itself “willing to do what it takes” to host the new plant – but its hopes have now been dashed by Goodyear’s chief financial officer, who has sent word that Akron – where Goodyear last produced car tyres in 1977 – is considered too costly.
The world’s top golfers will once again descend on Akron in the US as the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational returns to the Firestone Country Club’s South Course between 31 July and 3 August. The WGC-Bridgestone Invitational is one of four in the WGC series, the international golf tournament organised by North American tour organiser PGA TOUR. The top players of the six major global tours – the PGA Tour, European Tour, Asian Tour, Japan Golf Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia, and Sunshine Tour – and players in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Rankings are eligible to compete in the tournament.
The shortlist of locations for Goodyear’s new factory in the Americas is said to include Brazil, Columbia, Mexico and the US. It goes without saying that numerous factors will be weighed up before a final decision is reached, and we can expect regional councils and development agencies to try and make their local area as attractive to Goodyear as possible. Authorities in the tyre maker’s hometown have been the first to officially show their interest.
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