Lanxess claims tyre additive reduces wear

ERJ staff report (SS)

Leverkusen, Germany - Speciality chemicals group Lanxess has developed Nanoprene, a new high-performance rubber additive for tyres, which it claims can cut the wear of the tyre.

Lanxess said in a 14 Jan statement that the additive does not in any way impact on rolling resistance or wet grip “Boosting tyre service life without losing other key tread properties,”

“The wear properties of a tyre rubber are linked to its wet grip and rolling resistance through the 'magic triangle' of tyre technology,” said Proffesor Werner Obrecht, the developer of Nanoprene and a rubber expert at the Lanxess Technical Rubber Products business unit.

“To put it simply, it is not possible to have everything at once, for example low fuel consumption, reliability on dry and wet roads and a tyre that lasts forever. If improvement is desired for one of these properties, this is not feasible without making concessions on the others,” he added.

According to Obrecht, Nanoprene reduces this conflict of objectives. The additive consists of particles of only around 50 nanometers made from polymerised styrene and butadiene -- traditional tyre rubber raw materials.

The difference with this product is the minimal size and surface functionality as a result of the production process used to make them.

According to Lanxess, the nanoparticles have a swell-resistant, highly cross-linked core with special anchor points on their surface, enabling the Nanoprene particles to be perfectly linked with silica and silanes, said the company.

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Press release from Lanxess