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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.

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.

The Rubber Division, ACS annually honors the best of the best with the most prestigious awards in our industry with their Science & Technology Awards. Recipients are selected by the Science & Technology Awards Committee, composed of distinguished experts from academia and industry. The Committee is chaired by Dr. Maria Ellul, ExxonMobil Chemical Company (Retired) and also includes the current Rubber Division, ACS Chair and Editor of Rubber Chemistry & Technology.

Continental was awarded three wins at the Tire Technology International (TTI) Awards for Innovation and Excellence this year. The German manufacturer took home the top prize of “Tire of the Year” for its new AllSeasonContact 2. In developing the tire, the manufacturer focused on the needs of vehicles of all driving types and produced a tire with safe handling, and impressive grip in all weather conditions. Continental also won “Environmental Achievement of the Year – Tire Design” for the UltraContact NXT, for striking the optimal balance between sustainability, safety, and efficiency. The third award is the “Tire Concept of the Year” for the Conti CityPlus. This state-of-the-art tire technology increases the total energy efficiency of a tire by up to 10 percent. The results are lower CO2 emissions from passenger cars with combustion engines and longer driving ranges for electric vehicles. The awards were presented at the Tire Technology Expo at the Hanover Exhibition Centre in Germany on March 19.

The modern plant with an initial capital investment of $380M will be built on a 150-acre site. Construction is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2024 and the facility is set to begin production in early 2027 with a planned annual output of 5 million tires.

Bridgestone announced its Firestone Liberia natural rubber growing and processing facility earned the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) PLUS recognition. The Firestone Liberia facility is the world’s first natural rubber farm to achieve the ISCC PLUS certification.
The Firestone Liberia facility earned the ISCC PLUS certification for its efforts in reducing environmental impacts, utilizing resources efficiently and enhancing its capacity to adapt to, mitigate and build resilience to climate change. The certification also recognizes the farm for the implementation of good agricultural practices, ensuring proper working conditions, complying with local regulations and fostering effective management practices to facilitate ongoing growth and improvement.

Goldsmith & Eggleton LLC (G&E), a Ravago company, announced the completion of a year-long improvement plan for its carbon black masterbatch (CBMB) plant. These improvements have been designed to minimize the handling of carbon black and rubber in the mixer, improve ergonomics, and increase batch-to-batch consistency. The improvements to the plant are part of a long-term strategy to offer the marketplace with innovative polymer solutions with a focus on sustainability and a circular economy. In 2023 G&E achieved QA-CER system 2 certification.

The rubber compounding arm of the HEXPOL Group has announced an investment in a devulcanization line in Europe. This allows them to offer mechanical devulcanization of rubber in-house and supports the transition to a circular economy. The new extruder will be installed at the HEXPOL Compounding site in the Czech Republic year end 2024, where it will provide devulcanization services also to the other European HEXPOL Compounding sites to ensure that a broad customer base can join the circle