Corporate News

Sumitomo Rubber Receives "Tire Technology of the Year" for 4th Generation Runflat Tire Technology at Tire Technology Expo 2010

2010.03.02

Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. headquartered in Kobe, Japan, received the "Tire Technology of the Year" award at the Tire Technology Expo 2010 held in February in Cologne, Germany for our technology to develop the 4th generation runflat tires. The reason for the award is that with our new Thermal Control Technology, we have succeeded in development of the 4th generation runflat tires to provide excellent ride comfort equivalent to or better than standard tires, while maintaining runflat performance of the tire. The company received Environmental Achievement of the Year last year.

Tire Technology Expo is Europe's leading international tire design and manufacturing exhibition and conference held every year since 2001. Not only tire manufacturers but also material suppliers and R&D organizations make presentations on their achievements and at the same time the outstanding technologies in the following five categories are awarded: Tire Technology of the Year, Environmental Achievement of the Year, Tire Manufacturing & Design Innovation of the Year, Tire Industry Supplier of the Year and Manufacturer of the Year.

Dunlop developed and commercialized runflat tires in 1970, for the first time in the world. We have worked very hard on reduction of heat generation with our unique "thermal control technology," for which we were awarded Tire Technology of the Year, to give a birth to the 4th generation runflat tire.

When it runs flat, a tire repeats significant deformation and the sidewall reinforcement layer generates heat every time it rotates. We adopted four proprietary technologies namely CTT Profile, Aramid Casing, High Thermal Conductivity Materials and Dimple Sidewall for the tire and increased the driving distance of cars on flat tires by 2.3 times, compared with the 3rd generation runflat tire. With those technologies, we were able to decrease the thickness of the sidewall reinforcement layer by 30% and in turn reduce tire's overall weight by 3% and vertical stiffness by 6%, which provides ride comfort same as or better than standard tires.