In an exclusive interview yesterday at the company’s headquarters in Kobe, Japan, Sumitomo Rubber Industries senior executive officer Yasutaka Ii revealed the tiremaker’s plans to expand its Falken brand truck radial offering.
Falken will be getting additional SmartWay-verified steer and drive axle tires, as well as a super wide, he said. No specific timetable was set.
On the consumer tire side, Ii (pronounced “ee”) said the coverage range of the Falken brand in the U.S. was better, but “We understand that we need to do a little more.”
The executive, who directs SRI’s overseas sales activities, wants to see the company’s two brands – Sumitomo and Falken – “do equally well” in the U.S. and Canada, and that having two known brands “creates an opportunity for us to expand our business.”
In a separate meeting, SRI R&D officials provided some background on the tiremaker’s new NEO-T01 fully automated manufacturing process. The NEO-T01 is a complete front-to-back robotic system, integrating every process from mixing through curing without human intervention and minimizing opportunities for uniformity issues with finished goods.
The objective, as with Pirelli’s MIRS and Michelin’s C3M systems, is greater precision for high-end replacement and OE consumer tires.
Currently, a single NEO-T01 unit – measuring 25 meters by 15 meters – is functioning, located at SRI’s massive plant in Shirakawa, Japan. That unit is still in testing, but company officials said it will be in commercial production next year, starting with Dunlop brand run-flat tires.
Tire Review will have more from its interview with Ii and its visit to SRI headquarters in an upcoming issue.
