The winners of this year\u2019s\u00a0Tire Technology International\u00a0Awards for Innovation and Excellence have been\u00a0crowned at a ceremony at Tire Technology Expo.<\/p>\n
Michelin picked up wins in two out of the five categories, winning the prestigious Tire Manufacturer of the\u00a0Year award, along with the Tire Technology of the Year award for its EverGrip technology.<\/p>\n
Michelin was crowned Tire Manufacturer of the Year after beating off stiff competition from Goodyear,\u00a0Kumho, and Yokohama. <\/p>\n
The independent judging panel of tire technology experts from across the globe\u00a0chose Michelin following the successful launch of its groundbreaking Premier A\/S tire with its EverGrip\u00a0technology in 2014. In addition, the company\u2019s progress with the Tweel airless tire concept was noted,\u00a0with Michelin having recently opened a new factory and announced OEM supply deals for the technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s EverGrip technology also scooped its own award, winning the Tire Technology of the\u00a0Year category in a field featuring Bekaert\u2019s TAWI (ternary alloy wire coating), the Pit Stop Line from\u00a0Trelleborg and Yokohama\u2019s achievement of aeroacoustic simulation around a rolling tire.
\nMichelin\u2019s\u00a0EverGrip technology works by maintaining tire tread pattern \u2013 and therefore safety \u2013 as the tires wear\u00a0down, so directly addresses the effects of tire wear on wet and snow traction. EverGrip was launched\u00a0with the Premier A\/S all-season tire, of which new sizes have recently been announced, and whose first\u00a0OE fitments will follow soon.<\/p>\n
Apollo Vredestein picked up the Tire Manufacturing Innovation of the Year award on the back of its\u00a0Tandem mixer Mixer 8 project, created following a vast expansion project at its facility in Enschede, the\u00a0Netherlands. \u00a0The Tandem Mixer for UHP compounds now occupies an entire building, with a tandem\u00a0structure consisting of two mixers fitted above each other. \u00a0
\nWhereas conventional mixing sees the rubber\u00a0compound left in the machine during the second (silanization) mixing phase, Vredestein\u2019s Mixer 8 allows\u00a0these two processes take place in the two separate parts of the mixer, enabling a silica compound, for\u00a0instance, to be ready roughly twice as fast. \u00a0This means the output of Mixer 8 is at least 80% higher on\u00a0average than that of a conventional mixer, with the machine\u2019s efficiency claimed to translate into energy\u00a0savings of more than 7,000GJ per year, for a financial gain of almost \u20ac200,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other nominees in this category were 4Jet\u2019s SCANNECT laser process, the new Uni-Stage TBM active\u00a0guiding system from Intereuropean and the NEO-T01 fully automated tire production technology from\u00a0Sumitomo Rubber Industries.<\/p>\n
In the Environmental Achievement of the Year category Lehigh Technologies\u2019 Micronized Rubber Powder\u00a0won in a field including Bridgestone\u2019s TPMS, the Biological Odour Removal System from Mesnac and\u00a0Carbon black anodes from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.<\/p>\n
Judges recognised Lehigh\u2019s 2014 milestone of producing more than 200 million lbs of Micronized Rubber\u00a0Powder (MRP), a sustainable, lower-cost, high-performing and customizable feedstock for tire\u00a0manufacturing, as well as other products.<\/p>\n
Versalis\u2019 Elastomers business unit picked up the title of Tire Industry Supplier of the Year category, for\u00a0its work contributing to sustainability through multiple innovations and partnerships, with examples\u00a0including the new functionalized SSBR polymers and a new generation of neodymium catalyzed BR,\u00a0which are being used by tire makers to save energy in the final products. Also nominated were Heico Tire\u00a0and Rubber Group, Mesnac, and the National Tire Research Center, part of the SovaMotion setup in\u00a0Alton, Virginia.<\/p>\n
The winners in each category were announced during the Awards Dinner at\u00a0Tire Technology Expo\u00a0Gala\u00a0Dinner at K\u00f6ln Messe, Germany on 11 February 2015 along with two additional categories announced on\u00a0the night, recognising the winner of the Young Scientist Prize plus the Lifetime Achievement Awards for\u00a0tire modelling legend, Professor Hans Pacejka and the former head of Dunlop R&D, Dr Roger Williams.<\/p>\n
The head of the judging panel and editor of\u00a0Tire Technology International\u00a0magazine, Graham Heeps said:\u00a0\u201cMany congratulations to all our winners. Our double-winner Michelin has a long tradition of introducing\u00a0new tire technologies. This year, as in the past, it is Michelin\u2019s focus on practical innovation that\u00a0impresses most, from Tweel, to EverGrip in the Premier A\/S, to the Formula E tires that are a proving\u00a0ground for future production technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The winners of this year\u2019s\u00a0Tire Technology International\u00a0Awards for Innovation and Excellence have been\u00a0crowned at a ceremony at Tire Technology Expo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n