TTE News: One wins top innovation award for HF

Hanover, Germany  – HF Group's One tire building machine (TBM) has been named 'tire manufacturing innovation of the year' in the 2019 Tire Technology International (TTI) Awards.

The award recognised the machine's capability "to produce tires with inflated or flat turn-up, as well as standard tire designs," said the awards citation.

Changing between the carcass drums takes only 20 minutes, which is comparable to a normal code change," the judging panel also noted.

“HF Group has systematically improved the quality and flexibility of their TBMs,” said judge Romain Hansen, director of global tire performance science, Goodyear.

“The newest generation responds very well to a trend in the tire industry of lower batch sizes and increasing numbers of stock-keeping units,” he added.

Other winners of the TTI Innovation and Excellence Awards, announced at a ceremony during Tire Technology Expo 2019 in Hanover included:

Environmental Achievement of the Year – Bridgestone for its HSR (High-Strength Rubber) polymer, the world’s first polymer to bond rubber and resins at a molecular level.

Tire Industry Supplier of the Year – Test World (Millbrook) for its all-year-round tire and vehicle winter testing facility.

Tire Manufacturer of the Year – Michelin, partly for its environmental initiatives over the past 12 months.

Lifetime Achievement Award – Rudi Hein in recognition of his 32-year career in special project teams at BMW, in particular his work on runflat tire systems, and the decade spent with Bridgestone as executive advisor standards and regulations.