A Century of Rubber Fillers – Driving Momentum for the Tire Industry

Zinc oxide the first filler for compound reinforcement gave the tire a strong white colour but when “all black” tire was introduced, despite it’s superiority, it did not immediately become popular. The earliest boost to commercial production of tires using carbon black reinforced compounds was the first World War. The development of the oil furnace technology 1943 by Phillips Petroleum Company enabled the development of various carbon black types to fulfil special requirements of the tire industry. During the 60s precipitated silica was introduced as a new filler to the tire industry. At that time silica was used as additional filler together with carbon black to improve tear resistance of truck tire treads. In the early 90s Michelin introduced the so called “Green Tire” based on a special polymer blend together with the filler system consisting of silica and silane. This has to be considered as a revolution in the area of fillers and is comparable to the introduction of the radial tire Today the usage of the silica-silane system is state of the art for passenger car tires. With the dramatic increase of the fuel price during 2008 the demand for improved rolling resistance tires became even more severe.