Toyo Tire & Rubber Co has advanced its Nano Balance Technology with the development of a new ‘nano-processing’ technology with advanced filler dispersion that contributes to a significant reduction in fuel consumption.
Toyo Tire & Rubber has used transmission electron microscope technology and SPring-8 to analyze the dispersibility of filler in rubber. Even if the rubber compound is blended with a mixer (mixing the solid rubber and the filler), the filler cannot be uniformly dispersed and remains in the form of agglomerate. When dynamic deformation is applied, energy loss occurs due to contact of the fillers which adversely affects fuel economy.
For high level dispersion of filler in the compound, Toyo has developed a new nano process technology that optimizes the filler structure in the solid rubber before preparing the compound. As a result, its processing method achieves the ideal state of filler that is uniformly and highly dispersed even in solid rubber, like natural rubber.
The newly-developed nano process disintegrates carbon black in a special solution and disperses it at the molecular level in the initial compound creation process while stirring and coagulating natural rubber latex. Toyo has further optimized this process so to achieve its goal of the “formation of highly dispersed filler at the molecular level”.
Nano Balance Technology, an indigenous rubber material development technology first developed in 2011, is used to develop ideal rubber materials with high precision through observation, prediction, material design and production control at the molecular (nano) level.
It is used to achieve more efficient tire rolling resistance (low fuel consumption performance) and braking performance (wet grip performance).
March 14, 2018
