Important Roles of Polymers and Fillers for Tire Performance Characteristics of Tread Compounds

Important Roles of Polymers and Fillers for Tire Performance Characteristics of Tread Compounds
By Shingo Futamura* and Kuo-Chi Hua
The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio
Abstract:
Tires play important functions for the performance of an automobile.   They support a moving load, provide isolation from road irregularities, and transfer forces between car and road surface in driving, braking, and steering.   And these force transfers are performed under all weather conditions; on dry, wet, and ice/snow surfaces.   Furthermore, those tires should perform all these functions with a minimum energy loss for a good fuel economy and at the same time provide many miles of service before wear out.   In designing a tire for the optimal performance a tread compound plays a key role because the rolling tire meets the road surface at the tread component of the tire.   Thus the optimal tire performance characteristics are often achieved by a proper selection of tread compound.   In this paper, important roles of polymers and fillers in developing the desired tire performance of tread compounds are investigated by systematically varying the type and amount of polymers and fillers.   The performance characteristics studied here are wet and snow tractions, rolling loss, and wear resistance.   The study showed these performance characteristics varied significantly by the type and amount of polymers and filler particles indicating the importance of tread compounds for tire performance.   Additionally the study also confirmed the importance of silica compounds for the desired tire performance, especially for rolling resistance and wet traction relationship.   However, the use of silica in the compounds also created new challenges.   They include processing difficulty, emission of volatile materials, and increased manufacturing costs as a result.  Therefore, recent advances in the industry surrounding the new filler are also reviewed.
*Retired and speaker