Author: RubberWorld

Michelin North America, Inc., has entered a settlement agreement with Techno Pneu, Inc. of Quebec, Canada, to resolve the Company’s lawsuit for infringement of a patent protecting Michelin’s category-leading off-road tire, the BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 tire.

The suit was filed in the Northern District of New York (Michelin North America, Inc. v. Techno Pneu, Inc., case no. 6:23-CV-1568-AMN-TWD) and identified certain remolded tire products produced and sold by Techno Pneu as infringing upon Michelin’s design patent protecting Michelin’s BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO2 tire tread design.

This year’s Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence, held at Deutsche Messe during Tire Technology Expo 2024, celebrated the very best innovations and achievements across the tire industry during the last 12 months. Comprising 13 categories, the Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence are a celebration of recent advances in tire technology and progress toward a greener and more sustainable industry, and a chance to acknowledge the personal achievements of some remarkable individuals.

Applications for the 2024 Polyurethane Innovation Award are now being accepted through June 20, 2024. This award is presented by the American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) and is considered the industry’s top technical honor. Past winners of the award include 3-D printing resins, durable coatings, and waterproof foam products, demonstrating the chemistry’s versatility and benefits as well as how it is essential to many end-use products.
The award will be presented at the 2024 Polyurethanes Technical Conference, taking place at the Omni Atlanta Hotel in Atlanta, Ga. from September 30 to October 2, 2024.

Bridgestone Americas, Inc. announced the release of its 2023 DE&I Annual Report. Guided by the Bridgestone E8 Commitment, this report captures new ways Bridgestone Americas is uniting efforts across the company and highlights key milestones. This includes the launch of its new Employee Value Proposition, which unites individuals with diverse perspectives to create a world-class team where they can thrive.

Thanks to 160 energy-saving projects, Continental Tires reduced its annual energy requirements by around 150 gigawatt hours in 2023. This was achieved, for example, through the increased use of renewable energies and thermal insulation. 150 gigawatt hours equates to powering about 12,500 family homes for a year, with an average consumption of 12,000 kilowatt hours per year. Energy in the tire industry is used, for example, to generate steam, which is required for tire vulcanization. In this production step, a rubber compound is converted into flexible, elastic rubber. With more efficient steam generation, Continental has reduced its CO2 emissions by 31,000 tons in 2023 alone.

The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced that it is supplying its BluEarth-XT AE61 tires as original equipment (OE) to Toyota Motor Corporation for use on the automaker’s new compact SUV, YARIS CROSS, which was launched in Thailand in October 2023. The YARIS CROSS is being fitted with 215/60R17 96H and 215/55R18 95V size tires.

Continental Tire the Americas (Continental) has officially opened a new sustainably designed facility in Fort Mill, S.C., today with local and state officials, key building project representatives, and corporate social responsibility partners. The state-of-the-art, 90,000 square foot building, which sits on 33 acres in northern Lancaster County, has capacity for 350 employees and is designed and built for future expansion potential.

VMI’s theme for this year’s Tire Technology Expo was “Smart tire building … inspired by AI”. Smart solutions that optimize tire building and address the challenges our industry is facing. New advanced vision systems, self-learning AI algorithms and self-adjusting processes contributing to improved flexibility, higher accuracy and consistency.

The Wheel Group (TWG) has voluntarily halted sales for all non mud-terrain tires of its AMP Tires brand. This action applies to all sizes of AMP Terrain Pro A/T, AMP Terrain Attack A/T, and AMP Terrain Attack R/T tires.

These tires meet the TUV SUD UNECE R-117 testing standard necessary to designate the tires as all-weather tires and display the Three Peak Mountain Snowflake (3PMSF) symbol in the European Union. However, they do not meet the snow traction testing standards required by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) or Transport Canada and, therefore, cannot display the 3PMSF symbol in U.S. and Canadian markets. The AMP Terrain Attack M/T tires are exempt from this action as they are not marked with the 3PMSF symbol.

Dow announced the launch of two new sustainable varieties of propylene glycol (PG) solutions in North America featuring bio-circular and circular feedstocks. Suitable for a broad range of applications, customers can now offer their high-performance products with externally verified sustainability benefits thanks to a mass balance approach.