Swedish firm Trelleborg has already indicated its intention to focus more intently on specific aspects of its business, and another move towards this goal is the divestment of its French light-vehicle component operation. The business, a unit within Trelleborg Automotive, has been sold to Germany’s Bavaria Industriekapital AG; financial and other details regarding the divestment will be published in Trelleborg’s Interim Report on 15 February.
Manufacturers and tyre safety organisations generally recommend replacing tyres when tread depth reaches 4mm; with winter tyres, the role tread plays is even more pronounced. In an official release, Continental quotes the advice of one Ruprecht Müller, an expert at the technical centre run by the German motoring organisation ADAC: “The tread pattern makes a crucial difference, especially on snow and slush,” stated Müller. “A winter tyre loses much of its traction on snow in particular when the residual tread depth drops below four millimetres or so. It makes good sense to replace the tyres at this tread depth at the very latest.
Earlier this year Avon Tyres launched a new top-end product to replace its ZZ3, a range that represented the Melksham-based tyre maker in the W and Y speed rated categories for the best part of a decade. This new tyre, the ZZ5, slots into the Avon performance hierarchy above the three-year old ZV5 and serves as both the brand’s flagship product and most dedicated performance offering. In October, Tyres & Accessories met the team behind the new tyre’s development and got to know their handiwork a little better.
Nexen Tyre Europe GmbH recently invited partners from numerous European countries to the Nürburgring to test the quality of Nexen’s new Nexen N’Blue ECO and Nexen N’Blue HD fuel-saver tyres.Over fifty dealers from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Great Britain, France and Italy travelled to the Eifel (Germany) on 7 September to learn about both Nexen and its newest products. Participants were offered extensive test drives on the Nürburgring grand prix track. Using VW Golfs equipped with either the new Nexen N’Blue ECO or Nexen N’Blue HD summer tyres, the market specialists were shown the fuel-saver products’ driving and handling properties.
Elaborating on news of a recent US$1.5 million grant received from a US Department of Energy (DOE) agency, Cooper Tire & Rubber says the funding will go towards accelerating the “development and refinement of innovative tyre design, construction, materials and reinforcement technologies focused on the replacement tyre market.” The grant from the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy calls for Cooper to develop an ultra lightweight tyre that delivers a minimum three per cent improvement in vehicle fuel efficiency. The anticipated timeframe for achieving this breakthrough is three years.
Nexen Tyre opened a technical centre in vicinity of Frankfurt, Germany in March. Nexen Europe Technical Center (NETC) in Frankfurt/Hoechst aims to be Europe and Korea’s interface for Nexen’s engineering development. At the private opening celebration, Min-Hyeon Han, head senior executive and vice president of Nexen Tyre’s Research and Development Center in Korea emphasized Europe’s central role in the brand’s global expansion. Nexen has set itself the objective of becoming one of the top ten tyre manufacturers worldwide by 2015.
Bridgestone Europe’s Franco Annunziato holds the distinction of going boldly where no European has gone before; the Italian national, who is chief quality officer and senior vice president of Technology at Bridgestone Europe, has taken on the additional role of vice president and senior officer at Bridgestone Corporation. In announcing his appointment, effective March 29, Bridgestone points out that Annunziato is the first ever European to be appointed to such a senior position within the Japanese corporation.
Korean tyre manufacturer Nexen is in the process of establishing a European Technical Centre in Frankfurt/Höchst, Germany. The company says that the Centre underscores its efforts to establish itself further on the European market. Two experienced tyre specialists and developers have been involved with the interface between Europe and Korea since the beginning of the year – engineer Hee-Jong Lee and Dr. Hendrik Stevens.
Avon Tyres is celebrating the centenary of its commencement of motorcycle tyre production in 2011. The Avon association with tyre production goes back to 1885, when a former cloth mill in Melksham, Wiltshire was turned into a rubber goods factory. By the turn of the century the company was diversifying, producing more rubber products and by 1911 Avon produced their first motorcycle tyre. It is now the only UK-based manufacturer of road-going motorcycle tyres.
After nine months of construction, on November 18 the final steel beam was hoisted into place on the Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC (BATO) state-of-the-art Technical Center in Akron, Ohio in a small topping off ceremony. This final beam to be manoeuvered into place bore the signatures of many employees at the current technical centre, many of whom watched its installation via web conference. The beam is situated at the highest point of the US$100 million dollar facility.
Since its establishment early last year, one of the primary focuses of GITI Tire (UK) Ltd. has been to provide a class leading level of service to both small and large fleets. In recent months the company has reported signing a number of agreements with UK fleets, including tyre supply for the 50 plus vehicles operated by Derbyshire based BJ Waters (Transport) Ltd. and for the 50 plus vehicle fleet belonging to Manchester’s Hadfields Transport Limited.
Bridgestone is to supply its Potenza tyres to Formula One for the final time in Europe this weekend, when the 2010 season enters its final four races with a trip to Monza. The Italian Grand Prix offers the challenge of one of the highest top speeds, with long straights bringing low downforce configurations into play, thus putting greater mechanical stress on the tyres. The tyre supplier is bringing its hard and soft compounds to the track for what its Motorsport director Hiroshi Yasukawa says will be “a very emotional… race for us”.
A reduction in fuel consumption to the tune of two to three per cent is possible with the latest van tyre segment offering from Giti Tire. When compared with its predecessor, the GT Radial Maxmiler EX achieves up to this saving through a ten per cent weight reduction and approximately 15 per cent rolling resistance; the manufacturer states that the production technologies and materials used in the new tyre have enabled such use of an optimised weight construction.
A standardised test process conducted by TÜV SÜD Automotive between four brands of winter tyre saw the GT Radial Champiro Winterpro come out on top. The manufacturer reports its tyre was found to have the best braking qualities on wet and dry surfaces and features above-average aquaplaning and snow driving behaviour. In the words of GT Radial, it was “the clear number one” following completion of all driving tests.
Displaying a wide range of its products on its generously proportioned stand near the main entrance in Hall 3, Kumho marketing manager Wolf Fuder said the Korean manufacturer had experienced a similar level of traffic at its stand to that in the pre-recession year of 2008. However, the make-up of the visitors was different; Fuder commented that there were “more international guests” and fewer from the domestic German market.
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