Other Tire Technology

If you can imagine the inefficiency of a rolling egg, you can understand the inefficiency of many tire and rim assemblies which are less than precisely round. Now, O-Bead changes the way the tire interacts with the rim, creating a rounder assembly. The "bead" is a cable inside a tire that helps the tire grip on the rim. On most tires, there are overlapped joints where the ends of the bead meet. O-Bead eliminates the overlapped joints by using a single, continuous strand of cable. This helps eliminate tiny, unwanted gaps between the tire and the rim, and creates a rounder tire assembly, for improved driving on straightaways and handling stability.

Dual-Layer Tread was developed to ensure that tires maintain wet performance as they wear. Tires with Dual-Layer Tread have two kinds of rubber in the tread, both containing EPC. As the tire wears, a higher grip layer is exposed. This minimizes the effect of wear on worn wet tire performance and helps maintain more consistent handling. It also helps prevent the increase in noise that tends to occur as the tread wears.

EPO integrates the two leading-edge technologies, Dual-Layer Tread and EPC, to help provide excellent performance as the tire wears.

EPC Tread Compound is a unique rubber compound that fights the effects of friction-related rubber hardening. Friction-related rubber hardening is one of the reasons tires lose wet-surface performance as they wear.

This design hasn't always been an exact science. Engineers relied on their experience and various design theories when developing new products. But now, our innovative COCS (Computer Optimized Component System) technology uses a supercomputer to determine the ideal combination of tread design, casing shape, materials, and construction based on consumer benefit criteria. Performing thousands of "what if" calculations and creating incredibly detailed tire simulations, COCS takes the guesswork out of designing tires. COCS makes it possible to create an endless diversity of tire designs to meet the demands of the consumer of today and tomorrow.

Carbon black is a reinforcing material that strengthens rubber. All tire manufacturers use it. But tires with UNI-T technology use L.L. Carbon, an advanced form of carbon black that offers real advantages. Under a microscope, conventional carbon black particles look like bunches of grapes. L.L. Carbon molecules resemble long chains. Think of these as the equivalent of the long steel rods used to reinforce concrete. Because this molecular structure absorbs and spreads road stresses over a larger area, you get a stronger tire better able to resist cracking, chipping, tearing, and excessive wear.