Bridgestone Ecopia EP100A Goes to the Middle East
Posted on August 23, 2011
Filed Under Bridgestone Tires, Interesting | Leave a Comment
This month Bridgestone wants to conquer the markets of the Middle East with its latest eco-product, the Ecopia EP100A tire. The tire differs from its Bridgestone sister-models by its eco-friendliness and a high safety level it delivers.
Bridgestone Ecopia EP100A is the company’s latest generation eco tire. It offers an excellent blend of reliable handling and low rolling resistance, the latter being vital for lower fuel consumption. The tire helps reduce fuel consumption by 3.1 per cent as compared to standard Bridgestone tires.
Shoichi Sakuma, Bridgestone chief executive in the Middle East, stresses that they are proud to have a tire that promotes friendly attitude to the environment without compromising on driver and passenger safety.
Bridgestone does its best to constantly improve its production technologies to provide for healthy environment for present-day and future generations. In the Middle East the company collaborates with an independent organization that works with the World Wildlife Fund (the WWF).
For half a year already the company has been in charge of the Tyre Safety and Eco Station campaign in the countries of the Persian Bay. The campaign is aimed to reduce the quantity of road accidents by informing people about fuel-effective and eco-friendly driving styles.
Bridgestone Ecopia EP100 will be available in the Middle Eastern market in the third quarter of the year.
Michelin Leaves Space Ship Production
Posted on August 4, 2011
Filed Under Interesting, Michelin Tires | Leave a Comment
For three decades already Michelin was producing aircraft tires named Michelin Air for NASA space program that launches “Atlantis” shuttles. The company was the permanent supplier of space ship tires over these years.
Not long time ago the world saw the historic start of the “Atlantis” shuttle that was the last space ship of its kind to leave the Earth. All in all, there were 135 space flights during the 30-year term, with all the shuttles having been equipped with Michelin tires only.
Michelin “space” tires underwent lots of all-rounded tests to provide for the real safety when a shuttle lands at a speed of 250 mph. But what is really surprising? Space tires are not that different from standard truck tires! At the same time, shuttle tires can resist load thrice as high as that of Boeing 7474.
Each space shuttle needs six tires, four for the main undercarriage and two for the front one. They are inflated with nitrogen that works stable under temperature fluctuations. The main tires are subject to maximum load and are used only once while front tires can resist two landings.
Since weight is of the greatest importance here, Michelin worked out tires with the shallowest tread possible to reduce weight and thus increase carrying capacity of a shuttle.
Twelve days after the start of the last “Atlantis” Michelin will secure its safe landing for the last time. Three shuttles still remain, but they will be written off and spend their lives in a museum. However, we hope that Michelin doesn’t leave space ship industry completely and will continue working in this area in future.
A Short Story of Rubber Compound
Posted on June 12, 2011
Filed Under Interesting | Leave a Comment
At the beginning of the 20th century tire-makers began thinking about the quality of rubber compounds tires are made from. They started adding special chemical elements to rubber compound to increase its wear and heat resistance properties so that the tires should be durable and long-lived.
From then on, all tires were reinforced with synthetic materials up to the 80s of the previous century. During the term different types of cord were created – rayon, nylon, polyester cord, fiberglass, metal cord and aramid fiber cord. Every ten years saw the invention of the new cord type.
In 1933 the cost of a standard high-class passenger tire in the USA fell down to 11 dollars while average tread mileage increased and was more than 23,000 miles. As a result, the cost of 1000 miles equaled to nearly 50 cents in comparison with 2.27 dollars that you had to spend in 1920 on the same distance.
Before the World War II there appeared one more means of tire quality improvement. It was synthetic rubber. Under the guidance of the US government all the tire makers temporarily refused from competing and united their efforts to quicken the development of synthetic rubber. Their collaborative work resulted in GRS building rubber. In the Soviet tire-making industry synthetic rubber has been used from 1933 and by 1940 73 per cent of tires had been made from it.
Synthetic rubber is the main component of all tires produced nowadays. It provides for substantial improvement of tire quality that cannot be achieved with the use of natural rubber only.
Cover Your Roof with Used Tires
Posted on June 11, 2011
Filed Under Goodyear Tires, Pirelli Tires | Leave a Comment
Used tires are often used as raw material for completely new products. While Israeli road-makers build roads from old tires the European Euroshield company, a well-known roof-maker launched the new eco-friendly shingles. The shingles is made from processed tires and includes 75 per cent of them in its structure.
Euroshield advertizes its new shingles as a powerful alternative to a standard one. Its excellent durability makes it a profitable investment into the safety and a long life span of your house.
With its new shingles Euroshield contributes to the reduction of environmental pollution as nowadays most of the used tire is thrown away. Yet, the company doesn’t stress the “green” character of its new product, unlike, it point to its high quality and exceptional durability. In this way the company maintains that any product must comply with strict ecological norms and mustn’t inflict harm either on the environment or on human health.
Firstly, cord is removed from used tire. Secondly, the tire is crumbled into large pieces. Thirdly, rubber pieces are covered with slate powder and heated in special forms to reconstruct shingle texture. Then every piece is equipped with a dedicated holder so that the shingles could be fixed to each other. Each shingle measures 90*90 cm. You need 600-1000 such shingles to cover a standard roof.
Euroshield is going to launch three variants of its rubber shingles, slate-, concrete- and wood-like. In comparison with standard roofing materials, the new tile isn’t subject to cracks, cuts, decay or deformation. Of course, the shingles isn’t cheap at all as the company spent more than ten years to create such a thing. On the positive side, the company grants the shingles a fifty-year warranty on. Furthermore, the shingles can be totally processed after its service term comes to an end.
