Its “pursuit of ultra-high precision tire production technology” has led Sumitomo Rubber Industries to develop NEO-T01, a new manufacturing system it will deploy in the near future.
Sumitomo pointed out that “NEO” is an acronym for “Next (generation),” “Elaborate” and “Orb.” The letter “T,” represents “taiyo” (Japanese for ‘sun’), “technology” and “tire,” while the “01” stands for the “first iteration” of the manufacturing system.
2013 will bring the 100th anniversary of Sumitomo’s production of Japan’s first domestically produced automobile tire, and since that time, the company has “continued pursuit of high precision and high performance,” the tiremaker said.
The roots of NEO-T01 lie in the 1996 development of Sumitomo’s “Taiyo” system, a space-saving, fully automated production system. In the 16 years since, Taiyo has undergone “repeated evolutions and expansions to produce a total of over 36 million tires.”
In 2008, Sumitomo began work on NEO-T01, which incorporates three key technologies:
• Metal Core Process – Sumitomo calls this “the greatest feature of “NEO-T01.” With this, various tire components are affixed to a metal former (core) that has been made in the exact shape and size of an actual finished tire’s interior.
• Fully Automatic Connected Control – This allows “significant weight reductions by allowing for optimal distribution of weight among tire components. This is made possible through the use of a computer control system that manages every step of the tire-forming process – from the formation and processing of strip components to their affixation to the metal core – with high precision, accurate to 0.01mm.”
• High-Rigidity Structure – “Allows for the use of harder stiffening materials than those that have been usable in conventional tire manufacturing systems. This is achieved by performing the entire tire production process, from formation to vulcanization, around a metal core that has been made to match the exact shape and size of the tire’s design. With this innovation, we have succeeded in significantly reducing tire deformation during high-speed driving.”
With these three technologies, Sumitomo claims its NEO-T01 “produces higher performance tires, achieving a 70% improvement in terms of high-speed uniformity, a 10% weight reduction, and a 50% reduction in deformation during high-speed driving compared with conventional tire manufacturing systems.”
