Tire Manufacturing Process (EN/FR)

Tire raw materials heavily use natural rubber, synthetic rubber, chemical additives, carbon black, and metal fabrics, etc., to meet the challenges of various performance indicators. For example, tires are prone to aging, so some additives that act as chemical buffers need to be added during their manufacturing to delay the aging process. Another example is that adding carbon black can significantly improve the wear resistance of tires.

There are also many markings on the tire, each representing different performance indicators.

Automakers usually decompose performance requirements and assign them to tire manufacturers for implementation, while tire makers must further break these down into specific design details. However, many of these requirements are inherently contradictory. For example, Hydroplaning resistance requires wide, continuous longitudinal grooves, while durability demands larger, more coherent tread blocks. The same tread pattern must simultaneously deliver "strong grip, efficient water evacuation, and quiet operation" - essentially requiring careful trade-offs between these competing performance characteristics.

Now, let's take a journey through the tire manufacturing process to see how these 'rotating rubber wheels' are produced.

1.Development and Engineering - Modeling and Drawing

2. Material Forming

   1）Material Forming-Raw Material Procurement

   2）Material forming - mixing, after preparing all kinds of raw materials, start mixing and refining into long strips of rubber sheets

   3）Material forming - calendering, compounding rubber and steel cord, etc., to make cord layers

   4）Material molding - extrusion, the mixed rubber is processed into rubber parts of specific shapes through an extruder, such as treads, sidewalls, etc.

   5）Material forming - various cutting methods to cut continuous semi-finished materials into required shapes and sizes

   6）Material forming - bead forming, processing high-strength steel wire into a ring structure, which serves as the load-bearing skeleton for the combination of tire and wheel hub

   7）Material forming - forming machine - assembling semi-finished parts into green tire

   8）Material molding-vulcanization, patterns and marks engraved in the mold

   9） Material forming - dynamic balance detection of tires

3.Post-processing

   1）Post-processing-finishing

   2）Post-processing-packaging

4.Inspection and Testing

   1）Inspection and Testing-Measurement

   2）X-ray Inspection

   3）Inspection and Testing-Mileage Testing Machine

   4）Inspection and Testing-Abrasion Machine

   5）Inspection and testing - Rheometer, analyze the rheological properties of rubber and other polymer materials (such as viscoelasticity, shear properties, etc.) for early material formulation development

   6）Inspection and testing - Rheometer, analyze the rheological properties of rubber and other polymer materials (such as viscoelasticity, shear properties, etc.) for early material formulation development

   7）Inspection and Testing - Viscometer for Measuring Related Petroleum-Based Auxiliary Materials

   8）Inspection and Testing - Atomic Absorption Spectrometer - Analysis of Heavy Metal Additives in Rubber

   9）Inspection and Testing-Carbon Black Compression Tester

  10）Inspection and testing - determination of carbon black oil absorption value, which affects the tire's reinforcement, wear resistance, rolling resistance, etc.

  11）Inspection and Testing-Sulfur Analyzer