CRIA: Tire Label Grading Standard Released in June 2016

On May 12, on the Review Meeting of Tire Label Grading Standard held by China Rubber Industry Association (hereinafter referred to as CRIA) in Wuxi, CRIA determined the implementation schedule of China tire labeling system. Tire Label Grading Standard and Administrative Provisions on Tire Label would be finalized and released at the beginning of June, the commissioning of online tire label application platform would start synchronously and tire enterprises could officially apply for Chinese tire label grading at free will.

“To end the chaotic phenomenon of low-price competition in tire market, standard must be set. Early implementation of tire labeling system is our common aspiration.” Xu Wenying, vice chairman and secretary general of CRIA, expressed, to promote industrialization of green tire in China and cater to the demand of domestic and foreign consumers, indicating the performance grade of tire in the form of label had become an inexorable trend. The compilation principle of Tire Label Grading Standard was to standardize the performance indicators of domestic tires, eliminate some tire products with substandard performance and outdated capacity, increase the industrial concentration, promote benign competition in market and realize structural adjustment of the products as well as transformation and upgrading of the enterprises; meanwhile, to put forward higher requirements for tire performance, improve the grade and market competitiveness of the products in an all-around way, promote technical innovation, enhance brand effect and improve the competitiveness of the enterprises.

Qian Ruijin, leader of CRIA Tire Panel and chief engineer of Double Coin Holdings Ltd., introduced that Tire Label Grading Standard was applicable to new pneumatic radial tires (excluding retreaded tires, industrial machinery tires, T-type spare tires for temporary use, etc.) sold in Chinese replacement market and originally designed to be installed on the vehicles running on the highway and urban road. Considering that at present, various laws and regulations in China were not perfect enough and the level of understanding and conscious implementation of laws of the enterprises were uneven, the implementation method of this standard was that complete self-declaration form of Europe could be adopted in China, and the method of implementing certification by professional agencies authorized by the government according to the standard and making self-declaration according to the certification result (or complete self-declaration and implementation of supervision and spot check of certification bodies) could be considered.

As for the selection of test tires, it was pointed out in the compilation explanation of Tire Label Grading Standard that both EU ECE certification and American SmartWay certification distinguished the product series according to the thread, test specification should be stipulated for the series with the same thread, which should be able to represent the test results of all products in this series, thus being able to save the test expenses and test period of tire enterprises to a great extent. In case of spot check in the qualified laboratory or testing ground entrusted by the industry association or the consumers, the selection of the test specification of tire could refer to the tire selection principle of “Worse Case” stipulated in Technical Announcement on R117 of EU, that is, when the test specification selected as stipulated reached certain grade, it could be considered that all the products with such thread reached this grade.

In addition, it was also pointed out in the compilation explanation that the technical indicators of tire labels should be consistent with the existing content of the EU in items, that is, it should include rolling resistance, noise and wet grip performances of the tires, in which noise performance was postponed. It was also suggested that the test method should identically or equivalently adopt EU technical standard (the existing national standards were basically identical to or equivalent to adoption). These three indicators possessed certain relevance, thus considering some single indicator separately might cause excessive pursuit of such indicator and sacrifice of other important performances. The test and certification methods of these three performance indicators had passed a large number of tests and certifications and were recognized and approved fully and widely.

Administrative Provisions on Tire Label put forward detailed regulations on application, review, placement and supervision of the labels. The representatives present were unanimous that the orderly implementation of Tire Label Grading Standard must be supported with effective, fair and equitable supervision. Therefore, Administrative Provisions on Tire Label required that CRIA should regularly organize supervision on the products of the enterprises applying for labels each year, and the laboratories or testing grounds with third party qualification should be entrusted to test the tires randomly selected from the market, with the results to be declared by CRIA. Once it was confirmed that the tires with labels of the enterprises did not conform to the content of the tire labels, the applicant enterprises could apply for recheck within half a month; if the test results did not conform to the label content, its qualification for label of products of such thread series should be canceled.

Han Jingyou, researcher of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Raw Materials Department Petrochemical and Chemical Division, said, “13th Five-Year” Period was a key period when China’s tire industry developed from a world giant to a world power, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology put forward 5 tasks to the rubber industry in the “13th Five-Year” Plan of petroleum and chemical industry: firstly, develop high-end products such as aviation radial tires, green passenger car tires, etc. as well as supporting raw materials such as low-rolling resistance carbon black, etc.; secondly, timely promote energy-saving processes such as wet process rubber mixing, nitrogenization high temperature vulcanization, etc.; thirdly, study and formulate tire labeling system; fourthly, encourage to construct tire testing ground; fifthly, implement brand strategy and cultivate a batch of internationally recognized famous brands. Among it, tire labeling system was the most critical task and the basis of evaluating green tire and building famous brand. CRIA’s compilation of Tire Label Grading Standard created good conditions for implementation of China tire labeling system. He expressed thanks for CRIA’s a large amount of work in cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in promotion of green tire industrialization and tire labeling system.

Yuan Zhongxue, NPC delegate, sponsor of China tire labeling regulation proposal and president of MESNAC, thought that at present, more and more countries put forward tire labeling regulation and vigorously developed green tire, China, as a big tire manufacturing country in the world, would undeserve its status if it did not put forward labeling regulation as early as possible.

Implementing tire labeling system was the demand of the market and the consumers as well as the need of acting on international convention and industry transformation and upgrading. Any new standard or regulation was not perfect at the beginning and must be constantly perfected during implementation. Therefore, he proposed: firstly, launch tire labeling system as soon as possible and perfect it during practice; secondly, China, as a later, could adopt copinism and implement according to the standard with great international influence at first instead of creating something new and original; thirdly, supervision was important during implementation, to insist on justice and equity, CRIA needed to carry out a large amount of work.

Zhu Hong, director of CRIA Technical and Economic Committee, expressed that Tire Label Grading Standard and Administrative Provisions on Tire Label would be revised as soon as possible according to the discussion views of the representatives present, and explained each time node of standard revision and publication: around June 10, the commissioning of online tire label application platform would start and some tire enterprises could apply at free will; on June 15, publicity and implementation would be carried out on 2nd Green Tire Safety Week held in Qingdao; in October, tire enterprises could officially apply for Chinese tire label grading at free will. Meanwhile, it was hoped that in 2019, the nation would officially legislate for tire labeling regulation.

Xu Wenying finally expressed that since 2012, entrusted by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, CRIA carried out research on green tire industrialization. In the past 4 years, CRIA organized key enterprises and technical experts in the industry to carry out work step by step in a down-to-earth way to complete Research on Development of Green Tire Industry, formulate and publish the first Technical Specification for Green Tire in China, complete the topic of Tire Labeling System Research and carry out the last review of Tire Label Grading Standard, during which the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology always granted support and the industry experts contributed a lot of hard work, finally, everything came easy.

She said, along with the establishment of tire grading standard, the enterprises would increase input in green tire and the market share of green tire would constantly increase. The industry would take green tire industrialization as the opportunity to promote industrial energy conservation, environmental protection and cleaner production in an all-around way, guide the whole industry to promote green production and green products, increase the scientific development level of the industry and realize industry upgrading.