The History Of Goodyear Company
The history of the Goodyear company started in 1898 when Frank Seiberling decided to name his newly-founded company after Charles Goodyear, great inventor of rubber compounds. The full name of the company – Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Frank Seiberling purchased his first plant for the money borrowed from his stepbrother. A former plant on the production of cardboard on the bank of the Cuyahoga River in eastern Acron, Ohio became the first enterprise of the company. Rubber and cotton were to be transferred from the other part of the world in a small town with restricted railway network. The staff of the company included only thirteen workers who were producing tires for bicycles and carts. The company also produced fire hoses and even rubber poker chips.
Seiberling also invented a trade mark – a sandal with wings that appeared in the newspaper commercials already in 1901. It was also the year when Seiberling offered his tires to a young car producer Henry Ford for his first racing car. It was the first time when Goodyear tires participated in motor races.
In 1903 the first tubeless tire was patented, in 1908 – the first all-weather tire. In 1909 Goodyear opened “aerospace” page – the company presented special tires for planes. Before this skis or bicycle tires were used for landing. In 1910 the company opened a plant in Canada and entered international markets. In a year Goodyear tires “flew” over the whole continent – from Long Beach in New York to Long Beach in California. Of course the flight wasn’t non-stop and took 84 days. In 1912 the first airship of the company appeared. In the same year Goodyear started its activity in Europe – London representative office was opened.
The Goodyear company passed a way from the first bicycle tire to the largest tire manufacturing company. This honorable title was given to the company already in 1916. It was the time when the slogan “Goodyear tires are used wider than any others” appeared. In 1926 Goodyear became the biggest tire company. These first legendary years predetermined its working pace that can be felt even today. At the moment the company produces tires for almost all kinds of transport – from motorcycles to buses.
Today the Goodyear company is the largest tire producer in the world, it works on six continents and its sales volume amounts to more than 15 billion dollars a year. Besides tires under Goodyear trade mark the company also manufactures tires of other world-renowned brands: Dunlop, Kelly, Fulda, Lee, Sava and Debica. The company also produces rubber technical goods and polymers for automobile and industrial markets.
Innovations – uninterrupted stream of new ideas, materials and technologies – has always constituted the basis of the company’s activity. In 1943 Goodyear founded the first research laboratory that later got thousands of patents. Many of the Goodyear specialists’ inventions were applied not only in tire and automobile industry but also for the production of artificial heart and joints, glues, artificial lawns for sport grounds, food packing, etc.
Today the Goodyear research center employs scientists and engineers from all over the world who contribute to the state-of-the-art scientific field engaged in the production of rubbers and polymers.
How To Store Summer Tires?
The room in which You are going to store Your summer tires must be cool enough – the temperature should not exceed +73 - +77 degrees. If the temperature is too high Your tires will get covered with microcracks what in its turn will speed up their aging. It will undoubtedly affect Your safety during next season. By the way, tires are afraid of cold too. That’s why cold garage will affect them in the same way as near-standing heater. The distance between the heater and the place of storage must not be less than 2 yards. The room for storage must also be dark and have ventilation – it means that You shouldn’t cover Your tires with canvas no matter how esthetically You are going to do that. You should also make sure that Your tires don’t have contact with oils, paints, fuel and other greasy surfaces. You should also wipe the tires dry.
If You are going to keep Your tires mounted on wheels You should hang them using the central hole of the wheel. It will also be necessary to pump them up a little bit. If You keep Your tires without wheels the technology is totally different.
You shouldn’t build a will from Your tires as the weight of upper tires will deform the beads and patterns of lower tires what will result in the decline of traction in the next season. Such tires will not only get worn faster – the wear will also be non-uniform. That’s why You should keep Your tires strictly vertical – on the floor or on a shelf and spin them every month for 90 degrees so that they can make a full circle throughout the cold season.
Some More Useful Facts About Tires
Probably, you have read and heard a lot about tire myths. You believe some of them, other you try to check yourself. Look through some more facts, concerning tires, and make useful conclusions.
Lets turn to some of them:
1.Wide tires can increase the speed of your car, if you take part in a race.
It’s true. If you have big and wide tires, your possibility to avoid slipping is higher and your car accelerates faster.
2. Automobile tires, filled with nitrogen leak out the air slower than that ones filled with the oxygen.
Yes, sure. Nitrogen molecules are bigger and that’s why iflation pressure don’t need to be checked so often.
3. Winter tires provide you with additional safety.
It’s the real truth. Especially when you have severe winter weather in your country and strong snowfalls.
4. The optimal service life of a tire – 25-35 thousand miles.
Tires becomes weary when you drive much, cover rather long distances at high speed, you are to change your tires nearly once a 4 years.
5. Overinflated tire will burst.
It doesn’t happen if you have a new tire of a good quality. Only if you have a damaged wheel the exceeded pressure on the sidewall may cause such a problem.
Top 7 Questions Most Frequently Asked At Tire Shop
We have conducted small research regarding the questions that are most frequently asked at tire shops. Below you will find the questions and our brief answers.
How noisy?
Acoustic comfort is very important for many drivers. The question can be answered as follows: if other conditions (manufacturer, price segment) are equal, V-shaped directional tread pattern will be noisier. Physical laws work here: V-shaped layout of grooves and tread blocks causes resonance in shoulder area what in its turn entails increased noise level. So, if acoustic comfort is more important for you than high-speed directional stability on wet surface, tires with non-directional tread pattern will suit you better.
How soft?
The question may be very relevant especially if one has to deal with poor-quality roads. The common principle is: the lower the profile – the worse the absorption of undulations. In case two tires have the same profile but the sidewall of one of them is softer, the tire with more rigid sidewall will deliver less comfort. The disadvantage of the tire with a softer sidewall is its higher exposure to damages.
When was the tire manufactured?
A lot of people have been asking the question lately as they look for the tires manufactured in 2010 or 2009. In theory such search is a waste of time as tires can be stored for more than three years without losing their properties. But their storage must be proper, and there the anxiousness of a purchaser is justified as he is not able to monitor storage conditions. On the other side, one can easily distinguish tires that have been stored improperly – they have dents on sidewalls, radial and circumferential curvings, worn spots and small ruptures.
Where was the tire made?
People are constantly interested in the manufacturing country. Many of purchasers are afraid of Chinese tires. But all the tire producers say that the quality of the products manufactured under their brand will always be the same regardless of the manufacturing region. The human factor has minimal influence on the manufacturing process. The main thing there is the quality of the used components and equipment that is the same at all works (China, Russia, Europe, America). The sellers confirm this information saying that faulty tires are equally rare among the products manufactured both in Europe and China.
What do color spots on the sidewall and circumferential stripes on the tread mean?
The question is asked not very often but regularly. Drivers are afraid of marks on tires because they consider them as signs of the lowering of quality. There is plenty of such information on the Internet. Here is the truth: spots on the sidewall are markers for balancing. For example, red spot marks the heaviest place on the tire, yellow – the lightest. By the way, working on the modern balancing machines makes the spots absolutely unnecessary but some producers still mark their tires. Circumferential stripes can be either traces of the testing machines that check radial wobbling of tires at works or inner manufacturing markers that simplify manipulations with different models and sizes of tires at warehouses.
Will the performance on wet surface be good?
Quite popular question. To answer it one can recommend tires with directional tread pattern. Nevertheless, premium segment tires with non-directional tread pattern also provide good water withdrawal properties.
How long is the service life?
This question is typical for those purchasers who have already chosen some particular model. Frankly speaking there isn’t a single criterion. The common principle is following: softer rubber wears faster. Such rubber is basically typical of sport tires as they are to ensure better traction performance.
