JSR Corporation (CEO: Eric Johnson) is pleased to announce that it has developed a new styrene-butadiene copolymer rubber (SBR) for automotive tires. The new SBR features significantly improved mechanical strength, wear resistance and durability.
Tire performance requirements are changing along with the development of next-generation automobiles including electric, connected and autonomous driving vehicles. In addition to improved fuel efficiency for CO₂ emission reduction, tires must also exhibit high strength, wear resistance, and durability, especially for next-generation vehicles.
To meet these needs, JSR has implemented its proprietary synthesis technology to develop a new SBR with significantly improved mechanical strength compared to conventional SBR. The material combines JSR's unique polymerization and hydrogenation technologies to control the number of unsaturated bonds in the material. Through this process, it is possible to optimize the interactions among polymer molecules and minimize the stress produced in crosslinking. As a result, this new SBR has, not only approximately two times the mechanical strength of conventional SBR, but also exceeds the strength of natural rubber. Tires using this new SBR as the tread compound rubber demonstrate more than 50 percent better wear resistance along with low fuel consumption and grip performance compared to conventional SBR-equipped tires.
JSR will give a presentation about this material at the International Elastomer Conference held in Cleveland, OH, USA on October 8-10, 2019.