Nexen Tire wins Red Dot Design Award 2024
Nexen Tire has won the Red Dot Design Award in the product category. The prize was awarded to the tyre manufacturer for the N’Fera Sport S tyre.
Nexen Tire has won the Red Dot Design Award in the product category. The prize was awarded to the tyre manufacturer for the N’Fera Sport S tyre.
Pirelli has added a new driving simulator at its Virtual Development Centre (VDC) in Breuberg, Hesse. The latest generation of driving simulators have become an important tool for tyre manufacturers, reducing the number of physical prototype cycles required for the development of new products. Pirelli says the VDC and static driving simulator underline its innovation leadership, combining high-tech simulation, artificial intelligence, and expert engineering. Pirelli identified the VDC, which enables the premium tyre manufacturer to develop and test its products virtually, as a signifier of its commitment to investing in local production in Germany, contextualised by other premium manufacturer’s recent announcements of the planned closure of tyre production facilities in the country. Pirelli’s Breuberg plant employs around 2,500 people, including 250 development engineers.
Nexen Tire lays claim to being the first Korean tyre maker to utilise virtual reality (VR) in the product development process. To strengthen its digital design process capabilities, the tyre maker has developed a VR design simulation system at the Nexen Central Research Institute in Seoul. It says this VR design review system allows users to “appreciate the scale of real tyres in a virtual space.”
A years after opening Pirelli’s Digital Solutions Center in Bari is celebrating its first year of activity increasing its workforce to 80, up from the planned headcount of 50. Currently, Pirelli’s digital centre, which is run as a public-private-academic partnership totals 30 employees, mainly from the Apulia region. So far, Pirelli has invested about 4.5 million of the 9 million euros originally earmarked for the project up to 2024, part of which will be financed by the Apulia region.
Vladimir Barvinok, who was previously general director of Continental Tires Rus, is Ikon Tyres’ new director of product development. He joined Ikon Tyres on 25 September 2023 as head of the company’s new Product Development functional area, which includes product portfolio management, technical regulation and certification, innovation, as well as research and development.
Ceat recently appointed Renji Issac, Senior Vice President R&D and Technology in India. Issac took over from Peter Becker, Senior Vice President R&D and Technology effective 1 May. Becker was globally responsible for quality tyre development and implementation in Europe from July 2017 to 30 April 2023.
A tyre with a tread enhanced with single wall carbon nanotubes was exposed to accelerated wear and handling simulation tests by Akron Rubber Development Laboratory. Analysis of captured airborne particles showed no free-standing nanotubes, according to Luxembourg-based OCSiAl, which produces carbon nanotubes.
Continental is developing virtual ECU Creator software (vECU Creator) to enable vehicle manufacturers, suppliers and third parties to be able to configure and run virtual cloud-based electronic control units in their specific development environments to help develop code for micro-controller and processor hardware that does not yet exist. The virtual ECU Creator is part of the Continental Automotive Edge (CAEdge) framework, which runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The Tire Society has published the details of presentations scheduled for its 42nd Annual Conference (12-13 September 2023, at the University of Akron, Ohio). In addition to in-person attendance, benefitting from live Q&A, sponsor exhibits and a student poster session, registrants can access the presentations after the Conference via a “play-on-demand” feature. Registration includes Tire Society Membership, which gives access to the critically reviewed Tire Science and Technology Journal.
Details of the first wave of the EffeXSport product line-up were released at the end of the first quarter and explain that the initial range is made up of 54 sizes ranging from 16 to 20 inches. Those products were already available back in March. Moving forward, a further 50 sizes will be added by the end of the year. What we now know is that the overall range will be more than half A-rated on the European tyre label. Triangle’s recent track event at the Hungaroring gave more details of how Triangle is developing its range by balancing compound and construction, as published in our July print edition. Subscribers can read all the details by clicking here.
Coreform’s tyre tread computer simulation processes bid aimed at accelerating the use of simulation in the tyre industry has won a United States Department of Energy (DOE) exploratory grant.
On 13 June, JK Tyre & Industry announced the opening of its European Technology Centre in Milan, Italy. The team in Milan will work closely with the team at JK Tyre’s Global Technology Centre in India and the company’s satellite R&D Centre in Mexico, according to company representatives. JK Tyre reports that it exports tyres to more than 100 countries so the task of the technology centre will be to “support product development for worldwide sites in OEM and replacement markets”.
Michelin has bought UK-based simulation software specialist Canopy Simulations for an undisclosed fee. Since Michelin has been developing dynamic virtual tyre models for the last couple of decades using its Tame Tire software, it appears the plan is to combine Canopy’s “virtual driver” with Tame Tire, taking Michelin’s virtual modelling to the next level.
Nokian Tyres is taking part in a research project that aims to improve the quality and yield of recycled carbon black from end-of-life tyres, with the goal of using this material more extensively in tyre and rubber products. The two-year development project is coordinated by Windspace Group A/S and co-financed by government initiative the Danish Eco-Innovation Program.
Hankook Tire’s holding company (Hankook & Company) along with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Snowflake are working on an integrated AI data platform to improve the performance and quality of tyres. According to the company, the digital ecosystem should also help to develop autonomous driving technology, increase efficiency in product development and increase quality through the analysis of manufacturing data.
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