Brussels, February 23, 2021 – Bridgestone, a global leader in sustainable mobility and advanced solutions, ARLANXEO, a world-leading synthetic rubber producer, and Solvay, one of the world´s top science companies and worldwide leader in Highly Dispersible Silica (HDS), both for innovation and for manufacturing, have today announced the launch of TECHSYN, a new, co-developed tyre technology platform enabling tyres to deliver unrivalled strength and environmental performance.
Unlocking a new era of sustainable mobility
TECHSYN combines chemically optimised synthetic rubber with tailormade silica, interacting at a molecular level, to deliver outstanding performance with no trade-offs.
Each material found in TECHSYN was developed in parallel by the three companies to create a tyre technology platform that provides unrivalled performance. TECHSYN enables tyres to achieve up to 30 percent better wear efficiency and a rolling resistance that is reduced by up to six percent, compared to other conventional Bridgestone EMIA4 summer products, without compromising any other performance areas. With the goal of ensuring less tyre wear material loss, extra focus was placed on performance improvements in tyre wear throughout the development of TECHSYN.
As a result of these improvements, TECHSYN augments the sustainable performance of the tyres it’s applied to by reducing overall fuel consumption and CO2 emissions and enhancing tread mileage2. TECHSYN’s durability extends the designed lifespan of tyres made with it by up to 30 percent3, to ultimately result in a tyre that needs to be changed less frequently and reduces the consumption of raw materials in the long-term.
As Bridgestone transforms to become a sustainable solutions company by 2050 – guided by its Sustainability Business Framework and a series of mid-long term sustainability-focused goals – the launch of TECHSYN, a solution created with the environment front of mind, marks a significant breakthrough on this journey.
Made possible by the combined expertise of three industry leaders
Demonstrating what can be achieved through close collaboration and an open-minded approach, TECHSYN is the result of an established three-way partnership between industry leaders Bridgestone, ARLANXEO and Solvay. Transformed from concept to reality in just 24 months, TECHSYN was made possible thanks to the unique cooperation and understanding between the three companies and profound combined knowledge of molecular mechanisms.
TECHSYN has the unique ability to balance a tyre’s performance across rolling resistance, wear and wet grip, and can be further adapted to meet varying needs. For example, TECHSYN’s wear advantage can be converted to instead enhance the wet grip of a tyre. The flexibility TECHSYN provides is made possible thanks to Solvay’s unique advanced silica developments, ARLANXEO’s expertise in developing, manufacturing and delivering novel tyre polymers and Bridgestone’s innovative compound technology.
TECHSYN has been designed to bring its benefits to various tyre categories and vehicles and, thanks to the unique flexibility it enables, can do so in combination with Bridgestone’s other leading tyre technologies. For example, when used alongside Bridgestone’s lightweight ENLITEN Technology, it’s possible for the tyre’s weight to be further reduced while retaining its performance.
Bridgestone is preparing implementation of TECHSYN for mass production, with various tyre categories and vehicles in mind. Bridgestone, ARLANXEO and Solvay have developed a roadmap of technologies where close collaboration will be essential to move along the pattern identified with TECHSYN and create even more effective synergies.
Commenting on the announcement, Laurent Dartoux, President & CEO, Bridgestone EMIA said: “At Bridgestone, we fundamentally believe that ground-breaking innovation and the future of mobility can’t be achieved without collaboration. The partnership in which TECHSYN is rooted has evolved to become one of the most unique we have ever been part of. As a global leader in advanced solutions and sustainable mobility, we’re moving forward with innovation and sustainability at the core of everything we do at Bridgestone. Through developing environmentally-driven solutions like TECHSYN, we’re making great progress on delivering against that ambition.”
ARLANXEO’s CEO, Donald Chen, also commented: “We at ARLANXEO are committed to delivering outstanding, customer-centric, elastomer solutions. By bringing together in partnership the combined know-how, skill and creativity of three world-class companies that are championing different parts of the tyre supply chain, we have been able to develop a new technology platform that offers new ways to address challenges specific to the tyre industry. TECHSYN enables improved fuel economy and tyre wear properties at the same time, with no performance trade-offs. As a result, tyres made with TECHSYN contribute to reduced CO2 emissions. Therefore this technology makes a significant contribution to improving environmental aspects, which is at the heart of the shared vision for sustainable product solutions held by the three companies that made it all happen.”
Dr. Ilham Kadri, Solvay’s CEO, added: “TECHSYN demonstrates what can be achieved when key actors in the value chain join forces. To protect our one and only planet, we must reinvent, collaborate and co-construct solutions to design tomorrow's cleaner mobility. I’m proud of all the teams who contributed to this project, in particular the speed with which they bought this innovation to reality.”
*1 Compared to conventional Bridgestone EMIA summer products.
*2 CO2 emissions relating to rolling resistance coefficient (RRC), which is measured in Bridgestone’s indoor labs.
*3 Wear performance has been evaluated by Bridgestone’s outdoor tests on 205/55R16 vs reference Bridgestone consumer summer tyres.
*4 Bridgestone in Europe, Russia, Middle East, India and Africa.
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