Evonik, one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals, is expanding its silica/silane system technology for modern tyre production with the newly developed Polyvest ST technology that could further decrease rolling resistance in tyres by up to 30% relative to carbon-black-filled tyres.
As a result, environmental impact and fuel consumption of vehicles are also reduced. This has been confirmed in tests on natural rubber-based rubber compounds.
Combining the existing green tyre technology, which uses precipitated silicas and rubber silanes like Si 69 and Si 266 from Evonik’s portfolio, with Polyvest ST enables tyre manufacturers to further optimise their products, according to Dr. Kai-Steffen Krannig of Evonik’s Innovation Management. “This is the latest chapter in our long history of successfully developing rubber additives for the tyre industry.”
According to a fundamental principle in the tyre industry, known as the magic triangle, any improvement in one of the core properties of a tyre— rolling resistance, wet grip, and abrasion resistance—is always at the expense of at least one of the others. The special feature of Evonik’s new development is that it further improves the compatibility of silica and rubber in combination with Si 69 or Si 266, thus pushing out the boundaries of the triangle.
Evonik is presenting its Polyvest ST and other product solutions for the tyre industry at the Tire Technology Expo 2017 in Hannover, Germany at their booth C816 from February 14 to 16, 2017.