![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.tyretrade.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/200302_Microscope-Falken-SRI-image.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI), whose European affiliate is Falken Tyre Europe, and Ibaraki University in Japan have established a new technique to observe and analyse individual materials within tyre rubber.<\/p>\n
Engineers claim this pioneering research offers \u201cenormous potential\u201d to use the information to develop high performance tyres with unprecedented levels of efficiency and wear resistance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The rubber used in automotive tyres is made up of dozens of different types of materials including polymers such as natural and synthetic rubber, reinforcing agents containing carbon and silica and so forth. These various materials form complex, hierarchical structures within the rubber that directly affect performance.<\/p>\n
For example, the structures formed by sulphur cross-links, which give rubber its elasticity, have long been thought to be closely related to rubber strength and changes in rubber properties over time (such as degradation). Until now, the details of these structures within rubber have been a mystery.<\/p>\n
To understand these interactions, a new particle beam microscope was developed by Ibaraki University. It can evaluate the actual rubber used in mass-produced tyres rather than less representative processed test samples. The microscope generates clear images of elements such as the sulphur cross-links or reinforcing agents and assigns specific colours to each element to clearly identity them.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing able to evaluate the very structures of tyres themselves, provides us with image data which can be used to develop internal structures for future tyres that provide superior performance in terms of fuel efficiency, wear resistance and so forth,\u201d says Sumitomo Rubber Europe GmbH\u2019s Dr Bernd L\u00f6wenhaupt. \u201cThis breakthrough offers enormous potential for the acceleration of our material development process. Using this technique, we have already succeeded in observing both coarse areas and fine areas (i.e. density) of sulphur cross-links within rubber in vivid detail for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n
For more information on the Falken range contact Philip White Tyres on + 44 28 37 510 666 (NI) or 048 37 510 666.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI), whose European affiliate is Falken Tyre Europe, and Ibaraki University in Japan have established a new technique to observe and analyse individual materials within tyre rubber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":26229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-falken","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n