Behind the scenes of Goodyear’s most successful all-season tyre
Thirty-nine years ago Goodyear launched the first all-weather tyre, paving the way for the all-season tyre market. Recently, the Goodyear Vector 4Seasons Gen-3 became the first all-season tyre ever to achieve an overall rating of ‘Good’ in an ADAC tyre test.
Providing an interesting look behind the scenes of at its development at the Goodyear Innovation Centre in Luxembourg, Goodyear shows us which components and technologies make it the company’s most successful all-season tyre generation and why it offers drivers a convincing alternative during the tyre change season.
“We are very proud to offer drivers who choose all-season tyres a top product that was rated ‘Good’ by the ADAC for the first time in this category,” said senior director technology consumer Goodyear EMEA, Ben Glesener.
Goodyear Innovation Centre
The development of an all-season tyre requires the precise coordination of many factors and involves several phases: from concept development including tyre construction, cavity shape, tread pattern design and tread compounds, to the testing and fine-tuning of these critical components resulting in a perfectly balanced tyre.
The all-season tyre combines elements from the tread pattern, the sipe structure, the groove arrangement and the sidewalls of summer and winter tyres to ensure balanced performance in changing weather conditions.
Much more than rubber and soot
Only the tread compound for the Vector 4Seasons Gen-3 consists of up to 17 components, for example, synthetic rubbers which provide excellent grip and wear performance. Silica and traction resins boast outstanding grip, and braking performance in rainy weather.
Other components include carbon black, sulphur, wax, and antioxidants, as well as sunflower oil, which increases the flexibility of the rubber. “The Vector 4Seasons Gen-3’s adaptive rubber compound ensures that the tyre remains flexible at different temperatures and offers reliable performance and outstanding mileage in a wide range of conditions. It actually represents a category of its own, connecting the best of two worlds,” said Goodyear compounding engineer Chris Kaes.
Developed in the winter laboratory
In the winter laboratory, Goodyear engineers produce different types of snow to test different rubber compounds and sipe structures on them. For example, the braking distance varies considerably depending on the nature of the snow and ice. The test of the Vector 4Seasons compound on a metal plate compacted with snow shows that the pure rubber compound already provides strong grip.
Combined with the special 3D sipes on the centre of the tread, the Snow Grip technology ensures excellent grip on snow. Only around 63 per cent of the rubber has direct contact with the road; the grooves of the remaining percent drain water and offer protection against aquaplaning or indirectly provide grip.
Eight times around the world
Goodyear claims that, before one of its tyres goes into series production, it has circled the earth eight times, on the road or on the roller test bench, and undergone 3,800 development tests. On the in-house test track, the Vector 4Seasons Gen-3 showed how effectively the dry handling technology developed for the premium all-season tyre works.
This includes reinforced tread and shoulder blocks that reduce the deformation of the tyre under high loads, such as during sporty driving in dry conditions. The result: short braking and very good grip on dry roads.