Tire Producers Seek Durability Through Chemistry

hink of it as better trucking through chemistry. In the near future, industry experts said, truck tires could well offer improved tread wear thanks to closely guarded refinements to the tires’ synthetic rubber content.

Treads are where the “biggest volume of rubber is, and where the maximum opportunity is to improve the efficiency of the tire in a cost-benefit relationship,” fleet consultant and tire industry veteran Asa Sharp told Transport Topics.

There are fleets that “would kill to get a 5% improvement in tread wear,” he said.

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