March 2020

Researchers at UCLA and the Universities of Waterloo and British Columbia have combined silicone rubber with ultra-thin lsyers of graphene to make a material for 3D-printed durable, flexible sensors for wearable devices. When the material bends or moves, electrical signals are created by the highly conductive, nanoscale graphene embedded within its engineered honeycomb structure.

Sumitomo Rubber Industries (SRI) and Ibaraki University, Japan, have pioneered a technique to accurately observe individual compounds in a tire’s structure, to help with future tire development. Through the use of a newly designed particle beam microscope developed at Ibaraki University, a team of researchers and engineers has been able to observe and analyze individual materials in a tire’s compound for the first time.

Indonesia will be relocating its capital city from Jakarta to East Kalimantan, and president Joko Widodo revealed recently that the city will only use autonomous and electric vehicles for mass transportation, The Jakarta Post reported. East Kalimantan is a province on the island of Borneo, one which it shares with Malaysia and Brunei. The president aims to turn the new capital into the first city in the world to use EVs and self-driving cars.

Yokohama Tire’s ultra-high performance (UHP) summer tire, the ADVAN Apex, earned a prestigious 2020 iF Design award. The Apex, which won in iF Design’s product category, highlight’s Yokohama’s decades-long UHP heritage. Developed for the North American market, the Y-rated Apex is available in 44 sizes, ranging from 17- to 20-inch fitments. The Apex, which also won a 2020 SEMA Best New Tire runner-up award, includes a 25,000-mile limited tread warranty (12,500-mile on staggered fitments).

German tire giant Continental and Tier 1 supplier Kordsa have announced that series production of the first 250,000 passenger car tires featuring their sustainable RF-free (resorcinol and formaldehyde) adhesive began in 2019. The two have been working together on this new eco-friendly dip technology since 2017. Coined Cokoon, the technology provides bonding activation of textile reinforcing materials with rubber compounds without the use of resorcinol and formaldehyde in the textile dip.

The 20th edition of Tire Technology Expo and Conference, which was staged at the Deutsche Messe, Hannover, Germany, February 25-27, 2020, once again welcomed visitors from across the global tire design, development and manufacturing communities, with more than 300 exhibitors presenting their latest innovations and solutions at the free-to-attend exhibition, while delegates at the neighbouring conference discussed the topics and themes set to shape the future of the tire industry.

The Malaysian Green Technology and Climate Change Centre (MGCC) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaya Green Builder Energy Sdn Bhd (MGBE) and KC Express Company Limited (KC Express), a Taiwan-based company specialising in total mobility solutions for the introduction of electric buses as part of the development of low-carbon cities through foreign direct investments (FDIs), The Malaysian Reserve reported.

The National Automotive Policy 2020 (NAP 2020) has been officially launched. The policy, unveiled earlier today by prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, aims to develop the country towards becoming a regional leader in automotive manufacturing, engineering and technology, and is very much an enhancement of NAP 2014, expanding on the outlines seen previously.