Green Concept Tyre
- Mostly traceable, renewable and recycled materials used
- Innovative lightweight construction and the option of replacing the profile strip contribute to the conservation of resources and energy efficiency
- Designed for use in future sensor-based, smart vehicle concepts with environmentally friendly drive technologies
- Concept study underlines Continental’s ambition to completely switch to sustainably produced materials in its tire products
The Conti GreenConcept study combines current and future technologies to construct sustainable passenger car tires.
Continental is presenting its innovative tire concept Conti GreenConcept for the first time. In this concept study, the premium tire manufacturer combines current and future technologies to construct sustainable passenger car tires and thus provides further insight into its diverse sustainability activities. The integrated, sustainable concept aims to use as few resources as possible along the tire’s entire value chain. It begins with the origin and procurement of the materials, continues with production and ends with a concept for extending the service life. The development engineers and material experts at Continental have consistently implemented the sustainable Conti GreenConcept tire concept on three levels:
“With the Conti GreenConcept, we are underscoring our goal of being the most advanced tire company in terms of ecological and social responsibility by 2030 – along the entire value chain,” says David O’Donnell. He is responsible for Continental’s global tire original equipment business. “From our current perspective, sustainable materials, lightweight construction and the renewal of treads are key elements in making tires even more sustainable in the future. With our concept study, we are providing an outlook on how Continental will completely convert its global tire production to the use of sustainable materials,” says O’Donnell.
The proportion of sustainable materials is over 50 per cent.
More than half of the Conti GreenConcept consists of renewable or recycled materials.
More than half of the Conti GreenConcept consists of renewable or recycled materials. Continental’s goal is to switch completely to sustainably produced materials in its tire products by 2050.
The premium Tyre Shop Abu Dhabi manufacturer defines all materials as sustainable, come from a closed material cycle, have no harmful effects on people or the environment, are responsibly sourced and are climate-neutral along the supply chain.
The bio-materials used include natural rubber from dandelion, silicate from the ash of rice husks and vegetable oils and resins, which significantly reduces the proportion of crude oil-based materials. In addition to natural rubber, certain materials such as recycled rubber or vegetable oils are already being used on a larger scale in Continental’s global tire production. Together with its partners.Continental is doing intensive research into industrializing the use of Russian dandelion.
Use of ContiRe.Tex technology: Polyester made from recycled PET bottles
In addition, the Conti GreenConcept uses 17 per cent recycled materials. In addition to processed steel and soot, Continental uses polyester from recycled plastic bottles in the carcass of a tire for the first time. Continental plans to enable the gradual introduction of ContiRe.Tex technology from 2022 and thus use polyester yarn from recycled PET bottles in tire production. As part of what is known as upcycling, a PET plastic bottle is turned into a PET high-performance material. A conventional car tire today contains around 400 grams of polyester yarn. Converted to a set of vehicle tires, more than 60 bottles made of polyethene terephthalate, PET for short, can be reused in the future. With the use of recycled polyester, the tire manufacturer is taking another important step to cross-product, resource-optimized, circular management in tire production.
Another sustainability building block in the material mix of the Conti GreenConcept is COCOON. This special adhesive technology, which Continental developed together with its partner Kordsa, enables the environmentally friendly connection of textile reinforcements with rubber compounds. As part of an open-source approach, both partners have been making this technology available to all players in the tire industry free of charge since 2019.
The intelligent vehicle concept relies on lightweight construction and thus conserves resources.
The tire weighs just 7.5 kilograms and is up to 40 per cent lighter than today’s standard tires. This weight reduction was made possible by an optimized profile of the tread, a special sidewall and a new carcass structure, including a weight-optimized core. These design features ensure a significantly lower use of materials and more sustainability in driving operation.
In this way, the environment sensors of future vehicle concepts control and monitor a proactive driving style, especially in city traffic, and enable an increasing number of environmentally friendly, lightweight tire designs to be implemented.
Optimized use of materials enables even lower rolling resistance.
The specially designed profile of the Conti GreenConcept offers greater safety reserves than conventional tires with the same profile depth. The use of materials has also been optimized in the tread, reducing its weight. According to internal measurements, this is around 25 per cent below that of a tire with rolling resistance class A in the EU tire label, the best value in this area. Low rolling resistance has a measurable positive effect on the environment, as it helps reduce the vehicle’s energy consumption. With internal combustion vehicles, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions can be reduced; the range can be extended with electric vehicles. Calculations by Continental, which leading vehicle manufacturers confirm,
David O’Donnell, head of Continental’s tire original equipment business.
The Tire Shop Abu Dhabi concept provides that the tread can be renewed several times with little time and material effort. The green-coloured tread base marks the transition from tread to the carcass. “With this concept, the Conti GreenConcept offers maximum flexibility and, at the same time, maximum sustainability,
In addition, a latest-generation Continental sensor inside the tire constantly monitors temperature, pressure and tread depth.
Continental’s concept tires are based on an EcoContact 6 for the Volkswagen Concept Car ID. LIFE.
In addition to the Conti GreenConcept tire concept, which Continental is presenting at its booth at this year’s IAA MOBILITY, the company is also equipping the concept car ID. LIFE from Volkswagen with a concept tire. It contains environmentally friendly tire construction technologies that can be used in series production at short notice.
Based on the Continental production tire EcoContact 6, this concept tire scores with a very low rolling resistance (EU label A) and thus increases the ID range. LIFE. The targeted use of renewable and recycled materials with a share of 37 per cent also conserves valuable resources along the entire value chain.
The sidewall of the EcoContact 6 bears the lettering “Responsibly Sourced Rubber” (responsibly sourced rubber) and underlines Continental’s diverse activities regarding the transparent and traceable procurement of natural rubber.
Other renewable raw materials used include silicate from rice husk ash, vegetable oil and vegetable resins. Also included are recycled rubber and the environmentally friendly adhesive system for textile reinforcements, COCOON, which was recently introduced in series production.
With the Conti GreenConcept and the concept tire for the concept car ID. LIFE by Volkswagen underscores Continental’s ambitious goal of being the most advanced Tire Shop Abu Dhabi company in terms of environmental and social responsibility by 2030. As a first step, the company will make its business with zero-emission mobility completely CO2-neutral worldwide in 2022. This is an important step to achieving complete climate neutrality and supports Continental’s customers in achieving their decarbonization goals. By 2050 at the latest, Continental wants to use 100 per cent sustainably produced materials in its tire products and achieve complete climate neutrality along its entire value chain.
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