A Perfect Match — Linglong Looks back Cooperation with LANXESS
Year:2015 ISSUE:22
COLUMN:COMPANY FOCUS
Click:338    DateTime:Nov.20,2015
A Perfect Match

— Linglong Looks back Cooperation with LANXESS

By Joyce Pan

"I remember the day in 2014 when we were anxiously waiting for a green concept tire coming out of the vulcanization process. It was the first time in my 22-year career to develop a green treaded and side-walled tire,” recalled Shouqing Cong, supervisor of formula division at Linglong Tire technology center. This project of concept tire was aiming at having excellent attributes with regards to fuel economy, wear and safety but was not only green from the inside, but also on the outside.
Linglong is one of the most successful tire manufacturers in China and ranks in the Top 20 globally. With a current, total annual capacity of 44 million sets of tires, the Shandong-based company offers tires for passenger cars, commercial cars as well as engineering machineries. Besides the factories in China, about two years ago it launched its first overseas plant in Thailand with more expansions beyond ASIA currently being worked on.
The company is also capturing opportunities brought by the global “green tire” trend. High performance tires that support the trend are one of the key focus areas of Linglong. This need towards more sustainable transportation solutions include the adoption of high-performance tires which is resulting in improvements in fuel efficiency and lower CO2 emissions.
And this was the starting point of the concept green tire.

Green tires energized by Linglong and LANXESS

High performance of the concept tire is the first priority. It is designed to be safe and energy-saving, while it is green both in tread and sidewall. These two factors combined set a big challenge for Shouqing Cong.  


For Wang Feng, Chairman of the board of directors of the Linglong Tire group, sustainable, long-term partnerships are never easy. “It is of crucial importance for Linglong to choose a right partner for joint research and development and have the overall business relationship based on a win-win concept.”
This is an area where LANXESS plays to its strength.
As the world-leading supplier of synthetic rubber, it is providing butyl rubber products such as X_Butyl halogenated Butyl Rubber (halobutyl) which are used for the air-tight layer of the tire, the inner liner. Solution styrene-butadiene rubber (S-SBR), BunaTM VSL and neodymium-polybutadiene rubbers (Nd-BR), BunaTM CB are used in treads, side walls and other elements of tires. These components offer numerous advantages on the road, such as 5%-7% saving of fuel efficiency, environmental sustainability, good braking performance and safety, higher mileage and longer service life, as well as low rolling noise generation.
“LANXESS has not only a strong portfolio in the rubber industry and but also strong R&D capabilities. When we are lined up with LANXESS, a world-leading supplier of raw materials, we are able to deliver win-win results,” continued Wang.  
“We are happy to cooperate closely with Linglong on a technical and research and development level to jointly develop solutions specifically to the respective application needs,” said Michael Rockel, Head of business unit Tire & Specialty Rubber at LANXESS China.
LANXESS and Linglong started the project by setting up a team comprising of more than 10 experts from both sides. Selecting a right formula of materials to achieve the performance and on the other hand finding ways to get the right green color were two key topics.
Various grades of butyl rubber, Nd-PBR and antidegrandants from LANXESS were carefully chosen to develop a new rubber formula that ensures a good performance of tires in rolling resistance, wet grip and noise. After roughly 9 months, with 4 formula revisions and countless testing, the project team finally found the right recipe for the filling materials.
The Chinese tire giant also worked closely with the state-of-art LANXESS Rubber Research Center in Qingdao side-by-side to launch compounds and evaluate coloring effects. Established in 2008, the research center covers an area of 3 000 square meters and provides compounding, physical testing, reverse engineering and compound development.  
“Roughly 30 kilos of customized compounded rubber were produced. At LANXESS, we always try our best to respond to needs of customers quickly,” said Dr. Steven Gao, Greater China Technical Service and Application Development Manager at LANXESS Tire & Specialty Rubbers business unit.

Tire labelling is good for Chinese tire-makers

Testing was conducted at the Linglong technical center in 2014.  As the first laboratory in China to specialize in the low rolling resistance and noise reduction categories, the test center is aligned with European Union testing institutes for testing standards and is authorized for its ability to conduct testing based on EU tire labelling regulations independently.  
The European Union prescribes a label for all motor vehicle tires that simplifies the quality and performance grading. The label shows consumers a tire's fuel efficiency (fuel consumption), wet grip (safety) and noise emissions with classification in categories A to G. Anyone driving category B rated tires at a speed of 80km/h must allow a braking distance three to four meters longer than that of category A tires, and for category E tires, it is even longer at 6 meters.
Testing results indicated all concept green tires earned B rating for rolling resistance and A rating for wet grip under the labelling regulations that went into effect in 2012 in the European Union.
For Wang Feng, the test result of the green tires concept under the EU tire labeling regulations was an ideal example to demonstrate the capabilities of Chinese tire-makers. “EU tire labelling gives the entire, global tire industry an open and transparent standard to verify performance of tires. It gives Chinese companies an opportunity and a platform to demonstrate not only the technical performance of our tires but also our innovation capabilities, as we have achieved with this project.”

1+1>2

The Chinese tire industry is in the midst of a massive transformation, and this kind of project sends out a strong signal to the whole industry that the vertical innovation model can generate technology innovation and thus contribute to industry development.
LANXESS firmly believes joint research development between LANXESS and its customers in China can bring enhanced productivity and quality by speeding up the project timeline from project start to implementation, reduced cost in testing laboratories infrastructure, increased value and minimized operational and program risks. LANXESS is willing to share analyzed data to help technical experts of its customers in China make more informed decisions and streamline operations.