Bridgestone Developing SuperTire for Cummins/Peterbilt SuperTruck II Project
Super-low-rolling-resistance tires will still have to meet customer expectations for mileage and retreadability.
Photo by Jim Park
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Super-low-rolling-resistance tires will still have to meet customer expectations for mileage and retreadability.
Photo by Jim Park
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Engineers at Bridgestone are working to develop super-low-rolling-resistance tires for the next Cummins/Peterbilt SuperTruck project. The goal is a tire with a 30% reduction in RRC (rolling-resistance coefficient), which equates to a 6% improvement in fuel economy, that still meets industry expectations for wear and retreadability.
“That’s a stretch target from our perspective, but we feel we can get half to two-thirds of the way there with our current tool box,” says Steve Charles, vice president of product development for Bridgestone Americas. “At the same time we have to balance the wear and traction characteristics because the ultimate boss — the consumer — won’t tolerate just a fuel economy improvement without good wear characteristics.”
As in the first round of the SuperTruck project, Cummins is the lead on this one too. Cummins will partner again with Peterbilt, Eaton, Great Dane and others. But this time, rather than using an available tire, Bridgestone has been brought onboard as a funded partner and is charged with developing a tire specifically for the project.
“It’s hard for us in the business world to allocate these kinds of dollars because we’re always trying to be business oriented and value-proposition based for the consumer,” Charles said. “The Department of Energy is helping with this research project by letting us take a clean sheet of paper and say, what if …”
The project offers opportunities to design the tires working as part of a cross-functional team. Tire engineers will be working beside suspension and engine makers, for example, and looking at many different interactions such as the impact of suspension function or torque on a tire.
Charles told HDT this is a clean-sheet project, with everything open to consideration, including such fundamentals as casing …Read the rest of this story
