Low Rolling Resistance Materials for Tire Design
115 patents in this list
Updated:
Modern passenger vehicle tires dissipate between 20-30% of total vehicle energy through rolling resistance, directly impacting fuel economy and EV range. This energy loss occurs primarily through hysteresis in the rubber compounds, where repeated deformation cycles convert kinetic energy into heat. Current high-performance tires must manage this energy loss while maintaining critical safety parameters like wet grip and wear resistance.
The fundamental challenge lies in the inherent tradeoff between rolling resistance and traction performance, as both properties stem from the viscoelastic behavior of tire compounds.
This page brings together solutions from recent research—including multi-layer tread architectures, optimized carbon black-silica hybrid systems, and specialized rubber polymer compositions. These and other approaches demonstrate how materials engineering can reduce rolling resistance while preserving essential tire performance characteristics.
1. Rubber Composition with Terminal-Modified Liquid Polybutadiene for Enhanced Silica Dispersion in Tire Sidewalls
HANKOOK TIRE & TECH CO LTD, HANKOOK TIRE & TECHNOLOGY CO LTD, 2024
Rubber composition for tire sidewalls that improves rigidity, low rolling resistance, and crack resistance. The composition contains natural rubber, polybutadiene rubber, silica, carbon black, and a specific type of terminal-modified liquid polybutadiene rubber. The terminal-modified liquid polybutadiene improves dispersion and bonding of the silica filler, enhancing rigidity and crack resistance without sacrificing low rolling resistance. The composition balances performance by optimizing the ratios of natural rubber, polybutadiene, silica, carbon black, and terminal-modified liquid polybutadiene.
2. Tread Rubber Composition with 2,5-Diethoxyterephthaloyl Hydrazide for Enhanced Dispersion and Reduced Hysteresis
Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd., 2024
Low heat-generating tread rubber composition for tires that reduces tire temperature during rolling to improve tire durability and extend tire life. The composition contains specific additives like 2,5-diethoxyterephthaloyl hydrazide that modify the rubber and filler to improve dispersion and reduce sliding. The additives react with rubber chain ends, filler surfaces, and silica to enhance bonding, reduce hysteresis loss, and mitigate the Payne effect. This reduces heat generation compared to using just white carbon black instead of regular carbon black. The composition can be made using a mixing method involving specific steps to incorporate the additives.
3. Rubber Composition with High Surface Area Silica and Plasticizer Ratio for Tire Treads
HANKOOK TIRE & TECH CO LTD, HANKOOK TIRE & TECHNOLOGY CO LTD, 2024
A rubber composition for tire treads that minimizes trade-offs between wet road braking performance, wear resistance, and fuel efficiency. The composition contains a reinforcing filler like silica, along with a specific ratio of a high surface area silica and a plasticizer. This balance of filler and plasticizer improves both wet road braking and wear resistance without sacrificing fuel efficiency compared to conventional tire tread rubber compositions.
4. Rubber Composition with High Surface Area Silica and Microsilica for Tire Treads
CIE GENERALE DES ETABLISSEMENTS MICHELIN, COMPAGNIE GENERALE DES ETABLISSEMENTS MICHELIN, 2023
Rubber composition for tire treads that provides improved wet grip and rolling resistance compared to conventional tire rubber compositions. The composition contains a diene elastomer, a high surface area silica (Tl > 100 m2/g) as the main reinforcing filler, a microsilica (T2 < 50 m2/g) as a secondary filler, a silane coupling agent, and a crosslinking system. The microsilica in addition to the high surface area silica enhances wet grip and reduces rolling resistance compared to using just the high surface area silica.
5. Pneumatic Tire with Multi-Layered Tread Structure Incorporating Carbon Black Formulation
HANGZHOU HAICHAO RUBBER CO LTD, ZHONGCE RUBBER GROUP CO LTD, 2023
Pneumatic tire that can improve the performance of the tire and reduces the investment of equipment. The tire is formed with a tread layer and shoulder rubber, wherein the shoulder rubber is arranged on two sides of the tread layer and the tread layer comprises an upper tread rubber, a lower tread rubber and a base rubber; the upper tread rubber is responsible for the tread performance such as abrasion, wet land braking, control and the like and controls rolling resistance and control, and the lower layer tread adopts a carbon black formula or a carbon black white carbon black combined formula to provide lower rolling resistance and higher modulus to achieve the high control and low rolling resistance performances of the tire.
6. Car Tire Tread Rubber Composition with Dual Styrene-Butadiene Rubbers, Resin-Reinforced Rubber, and Varied Surface Area Silica
Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd., ZHONGCE RUBBER GROUP COMPANY LTD, 2023
High-performance car tire tread rubber composition that provides improved wet, dry, handling, and rolling resistance performance compared to conventional tire tread compounds. The composition uses specific combinations of styrene-butadiene rubbers, fillers, resin-reinforced rubber, silica with different surface areas, and silane coupling agents to achieve the balance of performance. The mixing method involves using two types of styrene-butadiene rubber, high filler content, a resin-reinforced rubber, silica with varying surface areas, and two silane coupling agents.
7. Rubber Composition with Silica and Dual Butadiene Rubber Catalysts for Tire Tread
HANKOOK TIRE & TECH CO LTD, HANKOOK TIRE & TECHNOLOGY CO LTD, 2023
A rubber composition for tire tread that balances rolling resistance, wet road braking, and wear performance. It uses silica as a filler to disperse well and improve wet grip. To balance rolling resistance, it contains a low molecular weight neodymium-catalyzed butadiene rubber with narrow chain distribution. The composition also includes lithium catalyst butadiene rubber for improved rolling resistance and wear. The specific filler ratios are: 5-50 parts silica, 5-50 parts carbon black, 10-30 parts styrene-butadiene rubber or 10-30 parts neodymium-catalyzed butadiene rubber, and 10-20 parts lithium catalyst butadiene rubber.
8. Five-Component Dual-Layer Tire Tread Rubber with Crosslinked Interfaces
Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd., Hangzhou Haichao Rubber Co., Ltd., HANGZHOU HAICHAO RUBBER CO LTD, 2023
Tire tread rubber with a five-component material structure that provides low rolling resistance and good wet grip. The tread rubber has two layers with different upper and lower compositions. This allows the upper layer to have lower rolling resistance while the lower layer has better grip. The five components are compounded and extruded into the tread shape. After vulcanization, the interfaces between the layers crosslink to prevent separation. The resulting tread provides a tire with low rolling resistance, good wet grip, and control performance.
9. Rubber Composition with Tin-Modified Polybutadiene and Amino Group-Containing Compound
TOYO TIRE CORP, 2023
Rubber composition for tires that reduces heat buildup and improves modulus for better tire performance. The composition contains diene rubber with tin-modified polybutadiene, carbon black, silica, a silane coupling agent, and an amino group-containing compound selected from formulas (1) and (2). The compound improves low heat buildup while the tin-modified polybutadiene improves modulus. The composition can be used in tire treads to reduce rolling resistance and improve steering stability.
10. Rubber Composition with Silica-Enhanced Phase Distribution for Vulcanized Tire Applications
Bridgestone Corporation, BRIDGESTONE CORP, 2023
Rubber composition, vulcanized rubber, and tire for improved braking on ice while maintaining low rolling resistance. The rubber composition contains specific ratios of natural rubber, polybutadiene rubber, and styrene-butadiene copolymer rubber. It also has a filler containing silica with at least 50% of the silica in the phase containing polybutadiene and styrene-butadiene copolymer rubber. This composition provides low modulus at low temperatures (-20°C) with high hysteresis loss for ice grip, without compromising wear resistance.
11. Rubber Composition with Silica and White Carbon Black for Enhanced Dispersibility in High Filler Load Tire Treads
Zhengxin Rubber Co., Ltd., CHENG SHIN RUBBER INDUSTRY CO LTD, Zhengxin Rubber (China) Co., Ltd., 2023
Rubber composition for tire treads that improves wet grip and processing while maintaining rolling resistance. The composition contains specific fillers like silica, white carbon black, and silane coupling agent along with other components like butadiene and styrene-butadiene rubbers. The white carbon black R300 improves dispersibility and processing when using high filler loadings like over 60 parts by weight of silica. This allows better wet grip without sacrificing rolling resistance.
12. Rubber Composition with Isoprene and Modified Styrene-Butadiene Rubber and High Silica Content
THE YOKOHAMA RUBBER CO LTD, 2023
Rubber composition for heavy duty tires with improved wear resistance, fuel efficiency, processability, and tensile strength compared to conventional rubber compositions. The composition contains 60-85% isoprene rubber, 15-40% modified styrene-butadiene rubber with a glass transition temperature below -50°C, and 40 parts or more of silica per 100 parts diene rubber. The isoprene rubber provides wear resistance, the modified styrene-butadiene rubber improves low rolling resistance, and the high silica content enhances wear resistance.
13. Tire Rubber Composition with Aminoguanidine Salt for Enhanced Vulcanization and Silica Dispersion
SUMITOMO RUBBER IND LTD, 2023
Tire rubber composition and tire with improved vulcanization speed and silica dispersion for low rolling resistance tires. The composition contains specific amounts of silica, plasticizer, styrene-butadiene rubber, and an aminoguanidine weak acid salt. The aminoguanidine salt improves vulcanization speed and silica dispersion in the rubber. The composition can further contain other rubbers like natural rubber.
14. Rubber Composition with Silica and Monoalkanolamide for Enhanced Dispersibility
MORESCO CORP, 2022
Rubber composition that reduces rolling resistance while maintaining the grip properties of the resulting rubber composition on wet road surfaces. The composition includes a rubber component, a white filler containing silica, a silane coupling agent, and a compound such as monoalkanolamide in order to improve the dispersibility of silica in the rubber composition.
15. Five-Component Rubber Structure with Dual-Layer Tread Compound
HANGZHOU HAICHAO RUBBER CO LTD, ZHONGCE RUBBER GROUP CO LTD, 2022
Tire tread compound with a five-component rubber structure that provides low rolling resistance, high wet grip, and good handling control. The tread compound has an upper layer and lower layer made of different rubber formulations. This two-part structure allows optimizing rolling resistance in the lower layer while maintaining grip and control in the upper layer. The compound can be used in electric vehicle tires to improve driving range. The tires have a tread made using the compound.
16. Double-Layer Tire Tread with Differential Compound Composition and Specified Layer Thickness Ratio
HANGZHOU HAICHAO RUBBER CO LTD, ZHONGCE RUBBER GROUP CO LTD, 2022
A double-layer tire tread design that reduces rolling resistance while maintaining good braking performance. The tire has an upper tread layer with high wear resistance and dry braking ability, and a lower tread layer with lower rolling resistance. The lower tread thickness is between 30% and 60% of the total tread thickness. This allows reducing rolling resistance by using a lower rolling resistance lower tread compound, while still maintaining adequate braking performance from the upper tread layer.
17. Tire Inner Layer Composition Comprising Isoprene Rubber, Carbon Black, Metal Salts, and Crosslinking System
Michelin Group Headquarters, MICHELIN GROUP CORP, 2022
Tire inner layer composition with improved durability and rolling resistance compared to traditional high stiffness tire compounds. The inner layer contains a rubber composition with specific ingredients to enhance durability without compromising rolling resistance. The composition uses a rubber like isoprene, carbon black filler, salt of alkaline earth metals, alkali metals, or lanthanides, and a crosslinking system. This allows improving stiffness for durability without degrading rolling resistance like conventional stiffness methods.
18. Rubber Composition with Diene Rubber, Silica, Carbon Black, and Magnesium Hydroxide
BRIDGESTONE CORP, 2022
Rubber composition for tires that improves wet grip and low rolling resistance. The composition contains a diene rubber, silica, carbon black, and magnesium hydroxide. The total silica and carbon black content is 60-150 parts/100 rubber. The silica fraction is 80-100%. The magnesium hydroxide content is 1-50 parts/100 rubber. This composition balances wet grip and low rolling resistance better than conventional tire rubbers.
19. Car Tire Tread Rubber Composition with Dual Styrene-Butadiene Rubbers, High Filler Loading, Resin Reinforcement, Varied Silica Surface Areas, and Dual Silane Coupling Agents
JIANGZHOU RUBBER GROUP LIMITED CO, JIANGZHOU RUBBER GROUP LTD CO, 2022
High-performance car tire tread rubber composition with improved wet grip, dry grip, handling, and rolling resistance. The composition contains two types of styrene-butadiene rubbers, high filler loading, resin reinforced rubber, different specific surface area silicas, and two types of silane coupling agents. This mixture balances wet grip, dry grip, and handling properties while reducing rolling resistance compared to traditional tire tread compounds.
20. Rubber Composition with Modified Trans Polybutadiene and Amide-Modified Fatty Acid Derivative
NEXEN TIRE CORP, 2022
Rubber composition for tires and tires manufactured using the composition that provide improved fuel efficiency, processability, and quality. The rubber composition contains modified trans polybutadiene rubber to enhance tire properties like rolling resistance, heat buildup, and wet grip. It also has an amide-modified fatty acid derivative to lower viscosity and improve extrusion performance. This allows better processing while maintaining tire performance benefits like fuel efficiency.
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