This year’s Tire Technology Expo (March 4, 5 & 6) opened this morning at the Hannover Messe in Germany with the much-anticipated Tire Technology Expo Conference. The conference kicked off with a plenary session, where two dominant themes emerged across four presentations: sustainability and safety. As pressure mounts on the tire industry to adopt greener practices, safety remains closely intertwined with this transition.
Tony Robinson, founder of Tire Technology Expo, highlighted tire pressure monitoring systems as an area needing improvement. Noting their sensitivity, he remarked, “It’s a shame TPMS hasn’t got to the level of intellect we’d like to see.”
He emphasized the importance for future mobility of being able to gather external data from a vehicle’s surroundings, stating, “Ultimately it all boils down to safety.”
Sustainability and simulation
Continental Tires’ head of sustainability, Jorge Almeida, and head of applied research and innovation, Prof. Burkhard Wies, then took to the stage.
Almeida stressed the need to move away from a linear economy. He said, “No one else does that and we need to change our thinking process.” He outlined Continental’s ambitious sustainability roadmap, aiming for 100% sustainable materials, 100% green and safe operations, and 100% sustainability across its value chain by 2050.
Acknowledging the unpredictability of legislation, he added, “It’s an ambitious agenda and we can’t lean on legislation. We are in funny days, we don’t know whether it’s coming or going. Some movements have been backward, but legislation sets the minimum requirements.”
Prof. Wies discussed the company’s studies on rolling resistance and tire temperature. He said, “Mileage is a big currency of the future.” He also spoke about Continental’s ongoing tire particle studies, both on-road and in the lab.
Another key area he highlighted was the use of driver-in-the-loop simulation to enhance efficiency, reduce test miles and limit prototype tire production. Continental first publicized its driving simulator acquisition in late 2023 – read more here.
Wies emphasized the need for industry-wide collaboration in standardizing tire characterization for simulator model development and application. “In the future, the tire industry needs to cooperate more because the requirements for these machines are becoming increasingly diluted, depending on the OEM you talk to. Years ago, we agreed on force and moment data to establish a standard measurement technology for characterizing the Pacejka coefficient of the tire. But over time, that agreement has diluted, and now every OEM has its own approach. I think we need to collaborate again to establish a unified standard.”
A member of the audience asked for an insight into Conti’s sustainability and recycling (SR) collaborations with suppliers. Almeida confirmed, “We have a lot of collaborations and development agreements – there is no room for not collaborating. Sometimes we can bring these into products, and sometimes we need to keep them in-house to make step changes with those collaborations we have.”
Asked what percentage of end-of-life tires Continental currently recycles into new ones, Almeida admitted, “It’s certainly not enough. We are at the start of our journey and now we need to analyze which parts of the tire we can introduce this material into, and the best way to do that. It’s an industry-wide issue, but we expect exponential growth in the coming years. Open-loop recycling is better than not recycling at all, but it should be closed-loop. It needs a lot of work.”
Read an interview with Burkhard Wies in the November 2023 issue of TTI
Digital Product Passport
Next, Claire Fioretti, head of standards and regulations for connected mobility at Michelin, delivered a keynote on the tire Digital Product Passport (DPP) pilot within CIRPASS-2, an EU-funded project testing the DPP at scale. She outlined the fundamentals of this ambitious initiative, which aims to provide full traceability to various actors throughout a tire’s lifecycle, granting access on a need-to-know basis. “It sounds like a dream, but compared with other industries, the tire industry has all the components to make it happen,” she noted.
When asked who would bear the costs of implementing the system, Fioretti explained, “Potentially all beneficiaries. This is why we defend the idea that the DPP system should not only be regulatory but rely on services that the tire industry has already put in place for its own interests.”
Read more from Fioretti here: Interview: Claire Fioretti
Euro 7
The final plenary session featured Dr Adam McCarthy, secretary general of the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA), who underscored the “tsunami of regulations faced over the next five years”, largely driven by the EU Green Deal. He pointed out that many upcoming regulations, including Euro 7, will significantly impact the industry. Expressing frustration, he added, “Regulators simply don’t understand how complex a tire is, and they don’t understand the industry.”
McCarthy discusses the ETRMA’s Euro 7 projects in the October 2024 issue of TTI
This year’s Tire Technology Expo Conference includes a day and a half of high-level discussions on Euro 7, bringing together key players to address the challenges of this impending legislation.
Referring to ETRMA’s studies on tire wear particles for Euro 7, McCarthy cautioned against negativity toward the legislation and its feasibility. He said, “We just don’t know what the number will be yet.”
He added, “It’s still the first time anywhere in the world that we are regulating tire abrasion.”
To find out more about the conference, click here. For more expo news, click here
