Bridgestone has successfully built passenger tires in which 100% of the natural rubber-containing components are derived from guayule.
Manufactured at the Bridgestone Technical Center in Japan, the tires are particularly unique because they were constructed using the company’s guayule natural rubber cultivated by Bridgestone at its Biorubber Process Research Center (BPRC) in Mesa, Arizona, USA. The company also built similar passenger tires at its facility in Rome, Italy, earlier this summer.
Bridgestone is continuing to invest in and advance major research and development in search of new and more sustainable sources of natural rubber to alleviate the overconcentration of natural rubber production in certain regions of the world.
Natural rubber is the primary raw material used to produce tires worldwide, and it’s consumed in large quantities. Bridgestone’s future research endeavors will focus on optimizing the natural rubber content in each guayule shrub, as well as evaluating applications in a wider range of tire types and rubber compounds.
October 9, 2015
