At this year’s Tire Technology Expo, held in Cologne, Germany, a new series of awards acknowledging excellence in the tyre industry was launched, and Bridgestone was named the inaugural “Tyre Manufacturer of the Year”. This honour was announced at the 2008 Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence ceremony and gala dinner, held on February 20.
Cooper Tire’s European Technical Centre in Melksham, opened a little over a year ago, has borne its first fruit – the all-new Avon Tyres ZV5 range. This new tyre, intended as a replacement for the ZV3, is aimed at the saloon car market and will be offered in numerous sizes to fit a range of vehicles as diverse as the VW Polo through to the Ford Mondeo and Audi A4.
The asymmetric tread pattern used on the ZV5 incorporates elements that emphasise handling in dry conditions, such as the broad open slots of the tyre’s shoulders, and in the wet, like the wide circumferential grooves intended to minimise the opportunity for aquaplaning. The tread blocks and siping have also been designed to slice through thin films of water, further enhancing braking performance. Steering response compared to that of the ZV3 has been sharpened through the addition of a stiffer lower sidewall layer.
Reacting to Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire’s stated desire to upgrade its research and development facilities in the US, city, county and state officials in Ohio are working to develop an incentive package designed to keep those operations in Akron. In January BFNAT announced that it wanted a new technical centre and were considering a few options: invest millions in rehabbing its nearly century old current facility at the old Firestone world headquarters in south Akron, or build new facilities in either Akron or Nashville.
Kumho Tyres was ready to steal a march on its competitors by producing a special 18-inch Rally Raid tyre in time for the cancelled 2008 Lisbon-Dakar Rally. The tyre will now see action in similar events in the future and, according to the manufacturer, no other tyre manufacturer produces a comparable tyre in this size.
The monster tyre with its enormous tread blocks is designed for optimum pace and durability over the sand and rock conditions that tend to prevail on events like the fearsome Lisbon-Dakar Rally. It employs the ultra-tough synthetic fibre ‘aramid’ (short for aromatic polyamide) in its construction for optimum weight and strength.
Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire wants a new technical centre, and is considering either building new facilities in Akron, Ohio or Nashville, Tennessee, or trying to rehabilitate its nearly 100-year-old existing facility in south Akron. The tyremaker, which has some 1,000 employees in Akron and about 600 working in the technical centre, has begun talks with Akron and Nashville officials about possible solutions. BFNAT plans to reach a final recommendation in May, and, with the approval of the boards of both Bridgestone Americas Holding and parent Bridgestone Corporation, announce its plans this autumn.
Yokohama Rubber has signed a contract with Spain’s IDIADA Automotive Technology SA, permitting the tyremaker to preferentially use the new IDIADA test track, which is scheduled to commence operation in April 2008. The term of the contract is 15 years, from 2008 through 2023. The purpose of entering such an agreement, reports Yokohama, is to achieve better evaluation performance and faster tyre development for European markets; an aim greatly facilitated by the preferential use of a test track that can be used to evaluate tyres even in winter.
Maxxis has been awarded an OE contract to supply the Peugeot 207, building on the company’s OE efforts in the Far East and North America. Maxxis has already established itself as a supplier to all the major car manufacturers in the Far East, including Ford, General Motors, Renault, Honda and VW, but the recent news marks the company’s biggest success in Europe. Maxxis also supplies Ford and General Motors in North America.
According to the company, Maxxis’ decision to establish a technical centre in the Netherlands three years ago goes a long way to explaining the company’s listing as an approved supplier to Peugeot. The new contract will see Maxxis supply “a tyre” for the Peugeot 207, which is built at the PSA assembly facilities in Poissy, France and Trnava, Slovakia. The contract commenced at the end of October and covers an annual volume of 500,000 tyres (2,150 tyres per day).
The decision that many in Goodyear’s hometown of Akron, Ohio have awaited for months was finally made public on December 5 – the US tyre major will continue its long-standing relationship with the city. At a press conference held at Goodyear’s World Technical Center, adjacent to the proposed future site of its new headquarters building, Goodyear chairman and CEO Bob Keegan made the announcement in the presence of state, city and county representatives, along with representatives from Industrial Realty Group (IRG), the developer selected to build the company’s new world headquarters.
Kumho has been a significant supplier to OEMs in its home market of Korea for many years. Recently, however, the company has taken a number of strides towards securing deals with major automotive manufacturers in Europe and the US. To that end, Kumho have set up offices in Birmingham, Hamburg and Detroit, as well as an office in Tianjin, China.
The tyremaker’s breakthrough in Europe came in 2001, when Kumho won the contract to supply 200,000 tyres a year to Volkswagen AG for the 2002 model year Polo. Though this was the company’s first ever European contract, it was not the first association with Volkswagen, to whom it already supplied tyres for the Mexican built Beetle. More recently, Kumho was selected by DaimlerChrysler AG to supply tyres for the second generation Mercedes Benz A-Class model. The development programme for this contract was led by Kumho’s Birmingham based European Technical Centre (KETC) and the main focus was ride refinement whilst maintaining suitable levels of wet and dry performance as well as a low rolling resistance. The result was a new tread compound and carcass material for the Kumho SOLUS KH15.
Bridgestone Corporation, sole tyre supplier for both Formula 1 and the GP2 Series, has decided to base GP2 Series tyre production and quality control at its Technical Centre Europe (TCE), on the edge of Rome. The output will be warehoused in the UK, at the Bridgestone Motorsport facility in Langley.
Until now, all GP2 race tyre development and production has been centred in Tokyo. Although, for the time being, design and development will continue to be carried out in Japan, the rationale for the new arrangement is twofold. Firstly, the addition of a second manufacturing site provides a safeguard against the risk of supply bottlenecks in this highly demanding environment. Secondly, GP2 race tyres supplied from Europe for European races will incur lower transport mileage costs and will have a lower environmental impact.
Bridgestone Corporation, sole tyre supplier for both Formula 1 and the GP2 Series, has decided to base GP2 Series tyre production and quality control at its Technical Centre Europe (TCE), on the edge of Rome. The output will be warehoused in the UK, at the Bridgestone Motorsport facility in Langley.
Until now, all GP2 race tyre development and production has been centred in Tokyo. Although, for the time being, design and development will continue to be carried out in Japan, the rationale for the new arrangement is twofold. Firstly, the addition of a second manufacturing site provides a safeguard against the risk of supply bottlenecks in this highly demanding environment. Secondly, GP2 race tyres supplied from Europe for European races will incur lower transport mileage costs and will have a lower environmental impact.
Goodyear has sold over 700,000 of the Optitrac tyre, making this one of the most popular farm tyre ranges on the market. Goodyear Optitrac first arrived on the European farm scene in 1999, with the introduction of the DT812, 70 series tyre, and was complemented by the DT818, 65 series variant, in 2001. The range was further extended by the introductions of the DT824 volume range, DT830 super volume range and DT800 in row crop sizes. The Optitrac family was further extended at the end of 2004, with the DT806, 85 series tyre, making a total of six products in the range.
In 2006 another family member was launched. Named the Goodyear Optitrac R+, this extended the performance capabilities of the range further, by providing even greater traction and carrying higher loads at speeds over 40 mph. This tyre was designed for the next generation of faster operating, compact, high-performance tractors over 150 hp.
Continental Automotive Systems has opened a liaison office near New Delhi and inaugurated a technical centre in Bangalore, India. Continental set-up the liaison office in Gurgaon, near the capital New Delhi, in 2006. Working from here the company aims to expand its business with Indian and international OEMs in India. According, to the company the Technical Center in Bangalore will be involved in development projects “for all the business units of Continental Automotive”
As an initial part of the concept, two independent engineering facilities have been established with local partners in Bangalore. About 60 engineers work in Bangalore for Continental Automotive Systems today. It is planned to reach a capacity of more than 200 engineers in 2008, so Continental will be hiring intensively in the next few months.
Goodyear is looking to replace its 80-year-old global headquarters in Akron, Ohio. Many within the company believe the existing premises to be obsolete and are concerned about the first impression visitors receive upon entering the aging building.
Eager to keep the tyremaker based in its traditional hometown, an Akron developer has approached Goodyear with a plan to build a new headquarters alongside the company’s technical centre. Once this has been completed it proposes to redevelop the old headquarters into a mixed-use complex housing other office, commercial and retail space.
“If the economics can be worked out, Goodyear will establish a new building for their global headquarters… on existing Goodyear property,” said Akron mayor Don Plusquellic during a news conference on April 11. Plusquellic believes the redeveloped Goodyear campus could create as many as 2,000 new jobs.
Bridgestone Motorsport has produced a special Limited Edition F1 Potenza Snow Tyre at the request of the BMW Sauber F1 Team. The team will be holding a demonstration of at the prestigious White Turf horse racing event in the Swiss resort town of St. Mortiz, and special tyres are required due to the extreme conditions in which the BMW Sauber F1.06 will run.
The F1 snow tyres, produced by Bridgestone Motorsport’s Technical Centre in Tokyo, feature 420 studs on each of the front tyres and 588 studs on each rear tyre. It took two Bridgestone technicians over 16 hours to manually insert all 2,016 studs into the double layer of tread compound on one set of tyres alone.
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