Speciality chemicals company Lanxess AG says it is seeking to optimise tire efficiency through more intelligent use of the filler silica in the treads or improving the distribution of silica in the rubber compound.

In the latest generation of solution styrene-butadiene rubber (SSBR), which is currently at the development stage at Germany-based Lanxess, significant further improvements have been made in the incorporation of silica filler into the rubber network, the company says.
“As a result, the service life can be increased, adherence to the road improved, rolling resistance reduced and the abrasion of the tires lowered. In addition, Lanxess is already able to offer rubber grades with environmentally friendly processing fluids, making it one of the first producers to comply with the European Union’s environment regulations due to come into force in 2010.”
The company added that its butyl rubber made an important contribution to maintaining air pressure, both in inner tubes and in the inner rubber layer of tubeless tires. The correct tire pressure also helped to save fuel and reduce CO2 emissions and was an important safety factor as well.

Nanoprene introduced
Lanxess has introduced Nanoprene for tire treads containing silica. Through the use of this innovative high-performance rubber additive, abrasion resistance is improved even further. The additive prolongs the mileage of the tires by 15 per cent, enhances grip by the same amount and also reduces rolling resistance, Lanxess said. The key to this development is the small size and the surface functionality of the Nanoprene particles. In chemical terms, this additive, which is produced in a highly specialised production process, consists of particles of only around 50 nanometers of a rubber compound. The nanoparticles have special “anchor points” on their surface enabling them to interact with the silica filler – an important development leap in tire production.
Lanxess rubber chemicals also helped in the manufacture of environmentally friendlier tires, it said. “The additive Vulcuren, for example, ensures that the tire treads hardened and aged more slowly even under maximum load. As a result, the tire maintained more constant wet and dry skid resistance during its lifetime,” the company highlighted.
“Environmentally friendly tires produced with high-performance rubber from Lanxess have lower rolling resistance and therefore save fuel,” the company noted. “The reduction in fuel consumption, in turn, cuts down the discharge of CO2 and lowers the impact on the environment. If all vehicles were equipped with such tires, around six billion litres of fuel could be saved every year in Europe alone, leading to a reduction in CO2 emissions of about 15 million metric tons.”

Safer and longer-lasting
Werner Breuers, a member of the Lanxess board of management, commented:  “Our innovative technologies also help to make these energy-saving tires safer and longer-lasting.”
Lanxess welcomed the latest decisions by the European Parliament to make safe, environmentally friendly vehicle tires obligatory.
The European Parliament in Strasbourg passed a resolution that, from 2012 onwards, tires must have details of their fuel efficiency, wet grip and rolling noise marked on them. The tires are to be categorised in a system of classes, with the best performance being labeled “Class A” and the poorest “Class G”.
Earlier this year, the EU Parliamentarians had voted that fuel-saving tires should become obligatory for new vehicles in Europe from 2011.
“With our modern high-performance rubber products, we can enable the tire industry to comply already with the EU’s strict requirements on safer, environmentally friendlier tires,” says Axel C Heitmann, Lanxess chairman. Lanxess expects the new regulations to bring a lasting, positive boost to the European tire industry and to the Leverkusen-based specialty chemicals company in its capacity as one of the world’s leading suppliers.
According to the European Commission, a car’s tires are responsible for 20 per cent of its fuel consumption – in other words one in every five tankfuls. “Because the number of vehicles worldwide will double within the next 25 years, the widespread use of innovative tire technologies is essential if we are to use fuels more efficiently and slow down climate change,” says Heitmann.
As the technology leader and major development driver in the rubber industry, the Leverkusen-based specialty chemicals company has the world’s broadest range of synthetic rubber.