Continental and Kordsa are to collaborate on a new sustainable adhesion system for bonding textile reinforcement materials to rubber compounds, which will use eco-friendly chemicals in place of the extremely harmful resorcinol and formaldehyde substances.
“The quality of the collaboration between Continental and Kordsa is already reflected in the test results obtained to date, which are very promising both in the laboratory and in physical testing,” said Dr Boris Mergell, head of R&D for passenger car tires, Continental.
“We are therefore planning the progressive introduction of this technology in the production of our tires across all segments. Numerous suppliers are currently working on solutions of their own and the complexity of the approvals process alone for all of the unique solutions could soon become excessive.
“That’s why our approach in this collaboration is to make the technology accessible to other suppliers and competitors, thereby laying the foundation for a new adhesion system standard.”
İbrahim Özgür Yıldırım, CTO at Kordsa, said, “In view of the critical fields of application, the use of resorcinol and formaldehyde represents a major challenge to the tire industry. We have leveraged our knowledge and expertise together with Continental to make a change in the formula used in the dipping of tire cord fabrics. The final formulation is an eco-friendly alternative to resorcinol- and formaldehyde-based adhesives.
“Reviewing our investments into research in this field and the results obtained, we are absolutely convinced that, in collaboration with Continental, we can make this the new industrial adhesion system standard for textile reinforcing materials.”
Continental and Kordsa plan to introduce a free licensing concept for the new adhesion system. Further details will be presented at Tire Technology Expo 2018, which will take place in February in Hannover, Germany.
August 16, 2017
