SIBUR replaced natural rubber in tires

SIBUR, together with its partners, is completing tire tests where natural rubber was replaced with a synthetic analogue, and is ready to present the test results next year. This was reported by "Interfax" citing the words of the company's Board member and Managing Director for Development and Innovation, Daria Borisova.

According to Borisova, preliminary results of bench, field and resource tests indicate that the resulting tires "do not yield to reference characteristics". "About 300 model tires are currently undergoing testing. We continue our work across the entire range of passenger and truck tires," she said.

SIBUR is also engaged in the development of its own recipes for rubber compounds and high-tech rubber grades for the tire industry, and the batches of products manufactured on a pilot plant are currently undergoing the homologation process with the company's partners.

"We have already created, worked out and tested about 20 recipes in various parts of the tire (sidewall, tread), and each part has its own requirements and characteristics," Borisova noted. "Our task is to select the recipes that will provide the necessary functional physical and mechanical characteristics and can ensure effective replacement and required functionality."

Earlier, it was reported that SIBUR, together with tire manufacturers, is working on replacing natural rubber from Asia with synthetic isoprene rubber. The company's CEO, Pavel Lyakhovich, noted that natural rubber accounts for about 25% of the raw materials in the tire industry, and the new project can replace 80% of imports of this type of rubber.

Photo: Novostiskolkovo.rf.