Truck tyres to begin using SR - Continental

By David Shaw, ERJ staff

London - Speaking at a seminar in London on 3 May 2012, A senior tyre engineer said Continental and other tyre makers are working hard on using synthetic elastomers in place of natural rubber in truck tyre tread applications.

Dr Frank Walloch, director of Continental's truck tyre development activity for EMEA said there is a huge research and development activity across the industry to use advanced solution -SBR in these applications which traditionally have always been confined to natural rubber.

He said there are a number of threads driving this. First is a desire among tyre makers to improve lifetime and fuel economy; second is substantial advances in SBR technology and third are advances in silane and other coupling agents.

Asked about timing, Walloch said he said some tyres are already on the market using these materials, however, these tyres are not yet up to the standard of the best NR tyres.

By 2015, he suggested tyres based on SR might be on the market, competing directly with NR-based tyres, and offering advantages such as improved fuel economy, without compromising lifetime. He said the initial application is likely to be in the lower-duties such as trailer tyres, but expected the technology to move into all application areas over time.

Walloch said the test regime for such a new technology has to be especially rigorous and therefore time consuming. Since it is a completely new technology, the new tyres might develop unexpected failure modes. In order to ensure that tyres based on the new materials deliver the right combination of tread wear and fuel economy, as well as other parameters, said Walloch, the modelling and test phase will be longer than for a typical new tyre launch.