2024-09-24 11:56:47
With electric cars, wheel rolling noise is more of a nuisance because of the lack of engine noise. Therefore, some manufacturers rely on quiet tires. So far, however, the production of so-called silent tires has been extremely complicated and increases the cost of producing a single tire by about 25 percent. In March of this year, Henkel, an industrial giant known to most people for its brands Persil, Spee and Schwarzkopf, presented a new process for silent tires together with 4JET, a laser systems company, at an exhibition in Hannover. Just six months later, the development is now complete, as Henkel announced in a press release. Later this month, the two companies will present the complete solution for the first time at the RubberTech24 trade show in Shanghai.
Innovative tires reduce rolling noise using acoustic polyurethane foam on the inside of the tire. However, the manufacturing process for this is complex. Manufacturers will have to introduce an additional logistics line for foam in their plants. In addition, different types of tires require different cuts of foam.
Henkel’s new process, on the other hand, doesn’t rely on a ready-made piece of foam, but instead uses liquid acoustic foam. This requires significantly less space during storage and makes numerous, sometimes manual, intermediate steps unnecessary. Because at the end of the tire production line, the material is simply placed into the tire and only formed there. The foam in the tire is then activated by a patented laser process.