rubber Archives - Page 341 of 347 - Tyrepress

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.

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New Technology Tyre For Concorde From Michelin

Following the tragic Concorde crash last summer, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. (EADS) approached tyre manufacturers to see if any research was on-going to improve the resistance of tyres to damage by foreign objects. In Paris, Michelin unveiled its response, the radial NZG. NZG, which stands for “near zero growth” is described as “the latest innovation in radial technology”. It uses a high-modulus reinforcement material which is lighter and offers higher damage resistance. The tyre was tested by running over a 30 cm blade both at taxiing and take-off speeds and the tyre suffered no damage.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

“BioTred” To Replace Soot And Silica

According to the US tyre manufacturer Goodyear, they have developed a filling material for car tyres on the basis of renewable raw materials. Thanks to this new rubber mixture, as reported by the press officer Mr Fischer, tyre production will be less harmful to the environment and, compared to the normal silica tyre tread mixture, it offers a lower rolling resistance. Above all, it should be fuel saving. This new technology, which will be used for the first time in the summer tyre GT 3, will offer additional advantages for safety and handling. Presenting the BioTred for the first time to the German press at the end of January in Frankfurt, the company attracted a lot of interest. BioTred is an artificial name, with a deliberate spelling difference to “tread”, in order to highlight its ecological advantage immediately to the consumer. BioTred is a patented tread mixture containing an element from corn starch. However, in parts this element will replace the substances soot and silica which have been used for processing up to now. According to Dr. Annette Lechtenböhmer, who is a chemical engineer at the Goodyear Technical Centre in Luxembourg and also a university teacher at the Hanover University Institute for Process Engineering, this new filling material will reduce CO2 emissions in different ways. On questioning it was confirmed that the starch suitable for producing the filling material could also be generated from potatoes. Since Goodyear has spent five years developing this material and holds a couple of patents, a lead over the competition should be possible.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Board Appointment For Goodyear

Philip A. Laskawy, (60) who retired as chairman and chief executive officer of Ernst & Young LLP on June 30, has been elected to the board of directors of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. “Mr. Laskawy successfully led Ernst & Young’s re-engineering effort that resulted in higher levels of customer service, greater diversity and outstanding revenue growth,” said Goodyear chairman and CEO Samir G. Gibara. “His experience and focus on change management will be a valuable addition to our Board as Goodyear seeks to get even closer to its customers.”

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

New Leader For Goodyear’s Global Marketing/Brand Management

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has elected Cathryn M. Fischer, vice president and chief marketing officer. Fischer, 39, will be responsible for the world’s largest tiremaker’s global marketing and brand management efforts. She will report to Robert J. Keegan, president and chief operating officer.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

New VP Of Corporate Research At Goodyear

Goodyear Tire & Rubber has appointed John Lawrence (58) as vice president for corporate research. Formerly director of materials science, Lawrence replaces recently-retired Richard Steichen. Lawrence joined Goodyear in 1970 as a senior research chemist.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Rubber Parts Unit For Toyo

Toyo Tyre and Rubber Co has announced the establishment of a wholly owned US subsidiary. The $20million plant will begin manufacturing vibration resistant rubber auto parts by July 2002. The company’s main outlets will be Japanese motor manufacturers operating in North America.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

A Change For The Better – Cooper-Avon Tyres

In 1997, Avon Tyres, a British-owned rubber goods and tyre manufacturer for over 120 years, was taken over by the American manufacturer Cooper Tire & Rubber Company. The subsequent three years or so have been among the most eventful in Avon’s long history; fears that the British company (annual turnover in excess of 100 million Pounds) would be absorbed by its new parent (annual turnover approaching $4 billion) proved to be groundless. This came as a relief to locals, as Avon was (and still is) the town of Melksham’s largest employer and plays an important part in community life. On the contrary, Cooper has invested heavily in its first manufacturing base outside the USA and Avon has reorganised, rethought its product offering and, in an uncertain economic climate, prospered. Our article examines how the company has changed and examines its prospects for the future. Managing Director Ron Shield and Marketing Director Julian Baldwin outline the events since the takeover and the way that the Cooper-Avon relationship has developed.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Engineers “Tread” Toward Quieter Tyres

Engineers at the University of Purdue (Indiana/USA) have developed a new technique for analysing tyre vibrations that identifies which features produce the most noise, a step toward designing quieter tyres and reducing highway noise. A mathematical model is used to identify which parts of a tyre produce the most noise. The vibrations are characterised on a graph, a visual representation that’s like a fingerprint of each tyre’s vibration pattern.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Vietnamese Rubber Producers Call For Export Limit

Vietnam’s rubber producers have called for a limit on exports of crude rubber. Exports to countries such as China have increased to the stage where the domestic rubber processing industry is facing a shortage of raw materials.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Vietnamese Truck Tyre Production Begins at Casumina

The Vietnamese Southern Rubber Company has begun production of truck tyres on a new production facility using Japanese technology. The first week’s production in August totalled 1,000 tyres. The quality of the tyres produced is claimed to equal that of imported tyres from Korea and India. The Vietnamese tyres are 25 per cent cheaper than the imported brands. Production will build to around 10,000 tyres per month, going some way to alleviating the shortfall in supply of tyres. The country needs 500,000 tyres every year but currently supply is limited to 200,000 units.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

New Director For Goodyear

James M. Zimmerman (57) has been elected to the board of directors of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. He joins the company from Federated Department Stores Inc., where he was chairman and CEO, and has extensive experience in retail. It was also announced that Katherine G. Farley, senior managing director of Tishman Speyer Properties Inc., has resigned from the Goodyear board after three years’ service.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

No Price Reductions For Chrysler

Goodyear, Chrysler’s number one tyre supplier in the USA, has resisted pressure to drop prices by 5%. Tire market competitor Cooper does not deliver tyres to Chrysler but its Technical Rubber Products generates every fourth dollar from business with Chrysler. We will see whether Cooper can resist the pressure from Chrysler to drop prices for products from its Technical Rubber Division.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Development Of Chinese Market Creates Demand

The rapid expansion of the Chinese automotive industry has created a demand for rubber components. This has developed an import market for specialised rubber products and is producing a boost to the rubber products sector, with special interest in acrylate rubber, ternary ethylene propylene rubber, thermoplastic rubber, flourine rubber, nitrile hydride rubber and chlorine alcohol rubber.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

“Sam” Gibara Joins SRI Board

Company News, International News, Product News

Samir G. Gibara (61), chairman and chief executive officer of The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, has been elected to the board of directors of Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. in Kobe, Japan. Gibara’s election is in conjunction with Goodyear’s 10 percent ownership of SRI, following the companies’ global alliance, completed in September 1999. This ownership makes Goodyear SRI’s second-largest shareholder. SRI holds 1.4 percent of Goodyear’s common stock.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Rebuilding Continental: Slowed Down Or Failed?

For 125 years, Continental has been in a position to feel pleased with its identity as a tyre and rubber producer until, under the Physicist von Grünberg, it was steered on to a different course. The plan, which at first sounded sensible, i.e. to use the available human and technical resources to search for and explore technically sophisticated products, in order to present itself increasingly as a partner in development with the automotive industry. That plan suddenly changed when ITT-Teves (Bremsen Teves, from where von Grünberg had come to Continental AG), came up for sale early in the summer of 1998. Teves was acquired for about Euro 1,700 million (1998 sales Euro 1,950 million) which corresponds to 18 times EBIT. The corporation had plunged into debt and now, analysts who had at first applauded the German Corporation’s initiative, points out Continental as an ideal take over candidate, or states that, alternatively, the corporation will collapse under its debts or can be expected to be broken up. The groundwork for this article had already been completed before Continental’s boss Kessel was dismissed. This only goes to show that any speculations about the impact the terrorists’ attacks on New York, for example, may have had on the world of Continental, are totally beside the point; the decline had begun long before that.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors