TIRE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 2022 Foreword Does the industry need a kick in the tires? by Matt Ross, editor-in-chief, Tire Technology International T en years ago, my esteemed technical editor penned the foreword for the 2012 Tire Technology International Annual Review . Reading it back now, Joe Walter appears to have an impressive knack for predicting the future – he pointed to the arrival of Chinese and Indian tire makers in the upper echelons of global tire making, and the impressive growth of Japanese and Korean manufacturers. As I sit here in November 2022, ZC Rubber, Apollo, SRI, Hankook and others have all proved Dr Walter right thanks to their emergence as major players, giving the US and European tire makers a run for their money. In addition, several of the other R&D arenas Joe mentioned continue to occupy the greatest minds around the world, and are explored in papers in this year’s Annual Review – including (but not limited to) thermo-oxidative aging, labeling, fuel efficiency, rolling resistance, virtual testing, manufacturing innovations and breakthroughs in compounds and raw materials. Should we feel disheartened that many of the topics mentioned by Joe a decade ago still, apparently, warrant further exploration? Should we be lamenting the fact that these have not been ‘solved’ by the R&D efforts of tire makers, academics and leading research institutes? Far from it, if you ask me. In fact, there’s been a decade of advancement, achievement and discovery, with no apparent sign of slowing down. If you compare tires from 2012 with the technologies, materials and innovations already on sale in 2022, and with some of the groundbreaking advances discussed in these pages (which look set to roll out on vehicles in the coming years), you’ll get a better appreciation of just how much effort is being put in, and how much progress is being made. A word of warning “There’s no excuse for complacency from the tire industry, which does not have the monopoly on innovation,” Joe wrote in 2012, and it is a point he has continued to make eloquently in subsequent editions, as well as in his regular column for the quarterly magazine. Many established vehicle OEMs had their worlds upended by the emergence of new EV developers over the last decade, seemingly caught cold by startups who didn’t consider themselves to be car companies, but rather tech companies who happened to offer cars as one of their products. Sure, some of these startups – or should we call them upstarts? – fell by the wayside. But several didn’t, and now not only coexist alongside the existing pantheon of auto manufacturers but are widely credited with spurring their lumbering predecessors into action. Could future advances in tire development come from companies we don’t currently consider to be part of the existing tire landscape? Would that represent an unsettling distraction or a much-needed innovative shot in the arm? Perhaps the foreword of the 2032 edition will be able to look back on the next decade and answer that particular conundrum. tire EL-THICKNESS Erhardt + Leimer Traversing thickness measurement Automation and Vision Systems Contactless laser & Eddy Current sensor High precission thickness measurement sensor prec c ision thickness measurement Thickness profile with traversing sensor Output signal for thickness control Erhardt + Leimer GmbH · Albert-Leimer-Platz 1 · 86391 Stadtbergen · Germany · Phone: +49 (0)821 2435-0 · www.erhardt-leimer.com 4
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