Raw Materials
Sustainable materials company Lehigh Technologies has announced two new Board members. Former executive vice president and chief operating officer at Yokohama North America, Jim MacMaster has joined the company’s Board of Directors, while Adel Halasa, PhD, a polymer scientist formerly with Goodyear, has joined its Advisory Board.
Three French companies – Michelin, Axens and IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN) – have announced the launch of a plant chemistry research partnership that aims to develop and bring to market a process for producing bio-sourced butadiene, or bio-butadiene. The partnership goes under the name ‘BioButterfly’ and in addition to developing an innovative bio-butadiene production process, the three partners are also committed to laying the groundwork for a future bio-sourced synthetic rubber industry in France.
More manufacturers are selecting Yokohama’s flagship environmental BluEarth tyres for their model ranges, according to the company. Manufacturers such as Toyota, Lexus and Honda have all chosen the products as original equipment on some of the most recent additions to the range of hybrid and environmentally-friendly vehicles.
As the market approached the first anniversary of tyre labelling, at the start of October industry body ETRMA expressed the need for consistency and sustainability in regulation across Europe. “The European Tyre and Rubber Industry has a strong manufacturing presence in Europe and needs a sustainable regulatory framework, well-coordinated among different policy areas, to remain competitive despite this long economic crisis”, said Patrick Lepercq, President of ETRMA at the association’s board meeting today.
Goodyear Tire & Rubber chairman and chief executive officer Richard J. Kramer says the company’s third quarter results “demonstrate continued sustainable earnings growth and the type of disciplined execution needed to deliver on our targets in 2013 and beyond.”
Titan International’s Titan Mining Services business has launched an operation to reclaim raw materials from mining tyres. Titan Tire Reclamation Corp. (TTRC) will work together with joint-venture company Green Carbon, using the latter’s pyrolysis process.
Tyre maker Continental says a machine it has co-developed offers a new approach to recycling the rubberised steel cord scrap that arises during the manufacturing process. The unit, which has been named the ‘Hurricane Machine’, separates uncured rubber compound and steel cord by a process Continental that claims is a tyre industry world first.
Bridgestone Americas’ project to evaluate the guayule plant’s suitability as a source of natural rubber for tyre applications has taken a step forward with the completion of the Agro Operations Guayule Research Farm. The facility in Eloy, Arizona has been set up to supply guayule biomass for rubber production at the company’s BioRubberProcessResearchCenter, which is currently under construction in Mesa, Arizona.
According to a statement released by German tyre maker Continental on 14 October, the joint venture project it operates with and the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology (IME) is “on the verge of a breakthrough.” Recently, work began on the construction of a pilot facility at IME’s Münster site in Germany, and when finished this will be able to produce larger volumes of dandelion-derived natural rubber.
Marangoni Commercial & Industrial Tyres has announced the development of a new programme within its Marix range of retreaded truck tyres. The retread product manufacturer says the Energeco brand has the objective of improving the performance of rolling resistance, which the company identifies as a decisive factor in the decision-making process for professional users and fleets operating over long distances. It will also become more prominent when EU tyre labelling’s second phase encompasses retread truck tyre products, the manufacturer says.
Continental will pursue the principle of making commercial vehicle tyres go further for customers with its synergetic TBR retreading facility named the ContiLifeCycle Plant. Announced in 2012 and due to open in Hannover-Stöcken later in 2013, the 10 million euro-plus plant is set to become the world’s first plant to integrate rubber recycling with hot and cold retreading, and will create more than 100 new jobs at Conti’s headquarters. Tyrepress got in touch with Christian Saas, Conti’s director Retread Business Commercial Vehicle Tires, to get the latest information on the plant prior to it coming on line.
Compared with producing a new tyre, retreading saves up to 30 per cent in energy and 70 per cent in raw materials. Retreading also lowers overall cost per kilometre, but despite these benefits the European retreading market has been hampered by a scarcity of the industry’s main raw material – good quality, retreadable casings – and by the availability of new imported tyres whose casing quality is not sufficient for retreading.
Six Michelin suppliers have been awarded for their “exceptional contribution” in 2011 and 2012. At an awards ceremony held on 25 September, the French firm saluted these companies’ contribution towards its growth and development, a contribution they said to be with a respect for Michelin’s values.
Aeolus has a new distributor for its passenger car tyre range in the German, Austrian and Swiss markets. German wholesaler and tyre service provider Reifen Straub GmbH now handles imports in these three territories and in mid-September began delivery of Aeolus AW02 and AW03 winter tyres for the coming ‘changeover’ period, which traditionally takes place in October.
While Lanxess says it is “pursuing strategic options for specific non-core businesses” and aims to reduce its global workforce by around 1,000 people by the end of 2015, the specialty chemicals firm’s reduced 2013 capex is being invested in areas serving the tyre and automotive industries. The company says work on its three key projects, including the new neodymium polybutadiene rubber (Nd-PBR) plant in Singapore is progressing according to plan.
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