This year’s Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence, held at Deutsche Messe during Tire Technology Expo 2024, celebrated the very best innovations and achievements across the tire industry during the last 12 months. Comprising 13 categories, the Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence are a celebration of recent advances in tire technology and progress toward a greener and more sustainable industry, and a chance to acknowledge the personal achievements of some remarkable individuals.
Applications for the 2024 Polyurethane Innovation Award are now being accepted through June 20, 2024. This award is presented by the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) and is considered the industry’s top technical honor. Past winners of the award include 3-D printing resins, durable coatings, and waterproof foam products, demonstrating the chemistry’s versatility and benefits as well as how it is essential to many end-use products.
The award will be presented at the 2024 Polyurethanes Technical Conference, taking place at the Omni Atlanta Hotel in Atlanta, Ga. from September 30 to October 2, 2024.
Bridgestone Americas, Inc. announced the release of its 2023 DE&I Annual Report. Guided by the Bridgestone E8 Commitment, this report captures new ways Bridgestone Americas is uniting efforts across the company and highlights key milestones. This includes the launch of its new Employee Value Proposition, which unites individuals with diverse perspectives to create a world-class team where they can thrive.
Thanks to 160 energy-saving projects, Continental Tires reduced its annual energy requirements by around 150 gigawatt hours in 2023. This was achieved, for example, through the increased use of renewable energies and thermal insulation. 150 gigawatt hours equates to powering about 12,500 family homes for a year, with an average consumption of 12,000 kilowatt hours per year. Energy in the tire industry is used, for example, to generate steam, which is required for tire vulcanization. In this production step, a rubber compound is converted into flexible, elastic rubber. With more efficient steam generation, Continental has reduced its CO2 emissions by 31,000 tons in 2023 alone.
The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced that it is supplying its BluEarth-XT AE61 tires as original equipment (OE) to Toyota Motor Corporation for use on the automaker’s new compact SUV, YARIS CROSS, which was launched in Thailand in October 2023. The YARIS CROSS is being fitted with 215/60R17 96H and 215/55R18 95V size tires.
Continental Tire the Americas (Continental) has officially opened a new sustainably designed facility in Fort Mill, S.C., today with local and state officials, key building project representatives, and corporate social responsibility partners. The state-of-the-art, 90,000 square foot building, which sits on 33 acres in northern Lancaster County, has capacity for 350 employees and is designed and built for future expansion potential.
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into various industrial sectors has spurred remarkable progress in the field of manufacturing process development. This concept has been extended to polymer compound formulations, where AI techniques have been used to optimize rubber formulations as well. Furthermore, it is conceivable that mixtures of other polymers, such as TPEs, thermoplastic materials or polyurethane compounds, could be similarly treated. Advantages of employing AI driven tools include reduced development time, enhanced efficiency and increased accuracy.
Global emissions of greenhouse gases from trucks and passenger cars are influenced by the deformation energy and friction losses of tires. It is mostly associated with the rolling resistance between the tire tread and the road surface. For this reason, the rolling resistance is considered one of the most important performance indicators (that is, targeted to be reduced) within the tire industry.
Spherix manufactures post-industrial recycled aluminosilicate ceramic microspheres with a mean particle size of 3-4 μm. The solid, incompressible spheres mechanically facilitate ingredient dispersion, processing speed and improved surface quality within a wide variety of polymer systems during both mastication and downstream processing. They promote flow and can reduce the need for conventional lubricants depending on the compound. Spherix is a registered trademark of Spherix.
Principal methods for processing elastomeric materials are reviewed, including continuous extrusion and what is described as multi-step extrusion.
A study to identify and quantify silicones’ contributions to the EU Green Deal’s ambitions to become climate neutral by 2050 reveals an annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emission saving potential of 96.4 metric tons (MT) in 2030. This is equivalent to the carbon footprint of 36 million people’s electricity consumption (for reference, Poland has 37 million inhabitants). These savings are projected to be 42.6 MT by 2050 for silicone-using technologies compared to non-silicones alternatives.
Low temperature
seals for oil and gas
applications
The TTS principle determines high or low frequency properties beyond the capability of dynamic mechanical tests.
Molecular Rebar in Aflas FEPM, when used in an Aflas compound formulation, results in improved tear toughness and high temperature modulus retention.
Researchers made a series of polymer gels with breakable bonds incorporated into different parts of the structure, and tested whether the properties changed after the gel was degraded and reformed.
The researchers hope this model system can be applied to other types of polymers, including adhesives, sealants and elastomers.
With disease and high demand posing threats to the world’s primary natural rubber supply in Southeast Asia, scientists are working to ramp up the U.S. rubber market by advancing methods to extract latex from two sustainable North American plant sources: a dandelion species and a desert shrub.
Researchers reported their methods to improve efficiency and increase latex yield in two recent publications, building upon decades of research led by Katrina Cornish, professor of horticulture and crop science and food, agricultural and biological engineering at The Ohio State University.
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