As drivers look to improve fuel economy, enhance road safety and reduce their environmental impact, tire engineers are increasingly using sulfur silanes to create the next generation of “green” tires, according to Norm Kanar, a spokesman for Dow Corning’s XIAMETER line.
“Wider use of green tires could save millions of barrels of oil per year and would also reduce carbon dioxide emissions significantly,” Kanar says. “As more green tires come on the road, the amount of fuel and pollution savings could be staggering.”
Green tires first emerged as a concept in the 1990s, when tire engineers discovered they could reduce rolling resistance and improve traction on wet or icy surfaces if they used silane with silica as a reinforcing filler in tread compounds instead of the traditional fossil fuel-derived carbon black. But higher manufacturing costs hindered widespread adoption.
A breakthrough came in the early 2000s when Dow Corning used Phase Transfer Catalysis (PTC) technology to develop a method through which the silane needed for the silica treatment component could be made more affordably, Kanar recounts.
Silica-reinforced tires are more resilient than traditional tires, he says. “This gives them better traction on wet and icy surfaces and can reduce stopping distances by as much as 15 percent, making the roads safer for everyone.”
For more information, visit www.xiameter.com.
