Conti's HTR-2 paves way for more truck tyre innovations

ERJ staff report (DS)

Birmingham, UK -- Continental began the Europe-wide rollout of its latest truck trailer tyre, the HTR-2 at the CV show in Birmingham on Monday. The tyre includes a number of innovations which will be used on future products for drive and steer axles in the next year or two, according to Gill Rogers, Conti's UK truck sales executive.

Rogers said the new tyre offers longer life, lower rolling resistance and better air retention than its predecessor. Most obvious is the deeper tread. The new tyre has a 17mm tread depth, and the tread extrusion is made with 20 percent more rubber than the predecessor. Rogers said the added flexibility of deeper treads usually leads to worse fuel economy, as the tread block distort under load, but the new tyre offers rolling resistance down by five percent compared to the old HTR. Rogers said this gives the tyre, "the lowest fuel consumption figures in this class."

She said the innerliner offers better air retention than its predecessor, thanks to a technology described as 'Air-Keep'. The company did not elaborate on this technology, but said, "the HTR2 holds the tyre pressure at an optimum level for up to 50 percent longer. " In a presentation, the company said the inerliner uses a high-density molecular matrix, suggesting that the larger molecules make air diffusion more difficult.

Conti said the new tyre has been 'weight optimised". Conti added, "When the tyre was designed, the focus was placed on its weight - the reduced-weight HTR2 is a trailer tyre that is excellently suited to semitrailers." In addition to the extra weight in the tread, the tyre has a steel belt, replacing the fabric used in the previous generation. Conti also said the tyre has a bead stiffener: an area of steelcord which surrounds the bead and bead filler in the area around the rim flange.