Tyres can’t function without this critical raw material. Whether its natural or synthetic rubber you are interested in, articles bearing this tag feature this indispensable polymer.
Yokohama Rubber’s IAA exhibit was designed to continue the manufacturer’s strategy of pushing its premium Advan range. Under the banner of “Further Evolving Advan – A Global Flagship Brand” Yokohama showed visitors its commitment to becoming a world leader in tyre brand development through three aspects – its flagship product line-up, OE activities and motorsports activities.
This is a short extract. Tyrepress and Tyres & Accessories subscribers can log in below to read the full article.
If you are not yet a Tyrepress or Tyres & Accessories subscriber, you can change that here.
Becoming a member has benefits such as:
Amerityre Corporation has begun the development of a polyurethane tyre compound and manufacturing process for retreading medium commercial truck tyres. Amerityre believes the retreading process, which has been successfully developed and tested in passenger car tyre applications, is a natural fit for the medium commercial truck tyre used by tens of thousands of over-the-road truck fleets worldwide.
“The benefits of polyurethane elastomer as a tyre compound are evident,” said Richard Steinke, president and CEO of Amerityre. “In both endurance and high speed testing our polyurethane compounds have run substantially cooler than rubber. In addition, these compounds have outperformed comparable rubber compounds in both accelerated heat aging and ozone testing,” he added.
After 36 years in Fayetteville, Kelly-Springfield Tire Co is changing its name. The company is assuming the name of its parent company – Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co – as Goodyear tries to unify its image. The 111-year-old company employs more than 2,650 people at the Fayetteville plant, which is reported to be one of the largest tyre manufacturing facilities in the world, producing 55,000 tyres per day. Kelly-Springfield was purchased by Goodyear in 1935 and operated as a wholly owned subsidiary until 1996, when it was fully merged with Goodyear.
When Tyres & Accessories last wrote about the pressures facing wholesalers, the issues pressing the business were not too dissimilar to what there are today. Then raw material price increases at the manufacturer level, not to mention high oil prices, were in danger of effecting wholesale pricing policies. Today oil prices (affecting both raw material and transportation costs) are almost 50 per cent higher, and almost all manufacturers have raised their product prices at least once if not twice this year. In order to get a feeling for how these issues are affecting international wholesalers, T&A spoke to representatives of US company Zisser Tire and Belgium-based Deldo.
(Akron/Tire Review) Timothy Lauth has been named manager of Cooper Tire & Rubber Co’s corporate technical centre materials laboratory. He will be responsible for managing daily laboratory operations and leading future development, administration and execution of testing to enhance capabilities, data integrity and productivity, the company said.
The seven-year Cooper veteran had been a compound development engineer in materials development, an extruded product development engineer for Cooper-Standard, a commercial tyre development engineer and two years in the Melksham, UK, production facility as a factory technical services engineer.
(Akron/Tire Review) RMA says that shipments of tread rubber will grow in 2005, producing some 17 million retreaded tyres, the third consecutive year that tread stock shipments have increased. While overall economic growth is expected to moderate in 2005, RMA said that strong demand for OTR tyres will add 2.3 per cent in total tread rubber shipments for the year, up from 2004’s 1.5 per cent growth.
Continued strength in construction, increases in the number of trucks, expansion in the manufacturing sector and positive freight trends will sustain growth through 2007 at an annualised rate of 1.7 per cent. The RMA report did not include allowances for any additional tyre use as a result of reconstruction work in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Michelin has partnered with Cornilleau, the world’s leading manufacturer of table tennis bats, to produce what the companies say is the world’s first range of composite table tennis bats. The move reflects Michelin’s further involvement in the production of leisure products. Interestingly the co-produced bats will feature the French tyre manufacturer’s Bibendum logo.
Cornilleau is reported to have approached Michelin because of its technical expertise in terms of mastering rubber compounds and composite materials. According to a joint-statement released by Michelin and Cornilleau, the two companies worked together for more than 18 months, focussing on the development of a new surface material. The partners claim that the “unique elastomer” surface they have devised offers: “optimum performance in terms of elasticity which gives the player additional speed, power and control.
Calling it the “next generation of SUV tyre technology,” Goodyear is introducing the new 4×4 Fortera(R) tyre, featuring TripleTred Technology. The tyre seeks to “respond to SUV drivers’ demands for confidence and security while driving on rain-soaked, snowy or dry roads,” according to Todd Hershberger, Goodyear’s marketing manager, light-truck tyres.
Bridgestone UK is introducing the R249 – a new, long distance steer tyre, for trucks of 16 tonnes and heavier.
Before designing the R249, Bridgestone surveyed almost 1,000 fleets of varying sizes in the six main European markets in order to see exactly what they required from a steer axle tyre.
(Akron/Tire Review) In a consumer survey conducted by The Tire Rack, Cooper Tire & Rubber Co’s Avon Tech M500 and Tech M550 A/S tires earned top ratings by UHP summer and UHP all-season tyre owners.
Some 95,000 respondents were asked to rate their tyres according to the following criteria: traction in dry, wet and snowy conditions, cornering stability, steering response, ride and noise comfort, resistance to hydroplaning and tread wear. In the UHP summer category, 40 tyre lines from 12 major tire brands were rated, according to The Tire Rack.
Avon owners, according to The Tire Rack survey, said they would buy the same tires again. The Avon line, originally available in European markets, was launched in North America in May 2004.
For complete results visit: http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=UHP
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresults/surveydisplay.jsp?type=UHPAS
Tyre Collections Services (TCS) have suffered what local firefighters have described as a “huge” fire. Fire crews took more than 24 hours to get the fire under control after witnesses reported seeing a plumes of smoke coming from the company’s Bull Lane, Moxley, Wednesbury site.
Commenting on the fire, TCS Managing Director, Mark Hetherington said: “Of course this is a real blow to our imminent operations and it is too early to say just how much damage the fire has inflicted on the site. However some tyres were rescued from the affected area and it is our hopeful intention to remain trading in whatever format is possible.”
A staggering four-out-of-five garages remain unaware of changes in hazardous waste regulations, despite new legislation having been implemented from 16th July 2005, according to Global Resource Management (GRM).
(India/Rubber Asia) Michigan Rubber (India) Ltd. is part of the Electra Tek Corp. of the Grand Cayman Group of Industries, a US business group with diversified business interests in the US as well as India in technical collaboration with ATEMCO USA. Fully promoted by non-resident Indians, Michigan Rubber manufactures a full range of tyres for automobiles, agricultural equipment, a host of industrial tyres, and even tyres for airplanes.
(India/Rubber Asia) In India, over 85 per cent of passenger car tyres are radials. This is expected to go up to 95 per cent in two to three years. In the light commercial sector the level has reached only 10 per cent. Truck and bus radialisation is worse still with only two per cent. A start has been made when it comes to radial tractor tyre production.
However, there are enough signals to say that the country is poised for radialisation in truck/bus/LCV segments like never before. Expert estimates vary but all agree that it won’t be long before we see exponential growth in radialisation in these three.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has named Marc O Voorhees as vice president of finance for North America. Voorhees comes to Goodyear from Eastman Kodak Company, where he was most recently operations manager, Digital & Film Imaging Systems European Region based in Geneva, Switzerland.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
