JSR Launches New SBR for High-performance Tires

The qualities that motorists expect from the tires that they use for their vehicles are likely to evolve with the advent of new types of vehicles including hybrid, electric and autonomous cars. Fuel efficiency, braking distance, rolling resistance and traction will no longer be the only criteria to be taken into consideration for tire purchase decisions. Tires will also need to exhibit high strength, wear resistance, and durability.
As part of its drive to cater to these more advanced requirements, JSR Corporation has used its proprietary synthesis technology to develop an innovative styrene-butadiene copolymer rubber (SBR). This compound can be used in tire production to make tires which exhibit much higher mechanical strength when compared to tires made with conventional SBR.

The material effectively leverages JSR’s polymerization and hydrogenation technologies to limit the number of unsaturated bonds in the material. This makes it possible to optimize the interactions among polymer molecules and thus reduce the stress produced in cross-linking.

The new SBR produced as an outcome of the use of this process has about twice the mechanical strength of conventional SBR, and even exceeds the strength of natural rubber. When tested, tires using new SBR as part of the tread compound rubber are said to demonstrate over 50 percent better wear resistance as well as low fuel consumption and better grip performance when compared to tires incorporating conventional SBR.