1

“Advanced Tyre filler materials to reduce

Fuel consumption of Commercial vehicles”

Michael Morris, Theo Al (speaker)

EXPOBOR, Brazil, April ‘10

© Cabot Corporation 2010

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Commercial trucks and buses consume a lot of the
World’s hydrocarbon fuels

Commercial vehicle traffic in the USA Total Petroleum usage in the USA

350
Transportation
Bus Other
300
Billion vehicle miles

Heavy Truck
250 Medium Truck

200

150

100
Aircraft
50 Cars
Light trucks/vans
0 Trucks and Buses
1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Source: U.S. Dept.of Transporation 20%

~130,000 Million liter of

Diesel in 2004
© Cabot Corporation 2010
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Trucks use fuel mainly to overcome resistance to motion

• What forces are acting on a truck traveling at constant speed on a

highway ?

Tire rolling Aerodynamic

resistance 25-35% drag

Mechanical
friction

A 10% reduction in Truck tyre rolling resistance can lead to

~2-3% fuel saving

© Cabot Corporation 2010

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Tread accounts for most of the rolling resistance

Tyre deformation during vehicle motion is essential for steering, grip

and braking….
Tread

Under-tread
….. but it also causes rolling
resistance

Side Wall

Inner Liner The tread and under-tread

account for ~40-50% of
total rolling resistance of
Bead filler/ Apex
truck tyres

© Cabot Corporation 2010

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Rolling resistance is due mainly to hysteresis

• Some of the energy used to strain the rubber gets

converted to heat
• Tangent d is a good way to characterize the hysteresis of
rubber materials
Strain Sweep, 10 Hz @ 60°C
10 7 10 0
)
[Pa]
G" (

Tan_Delta
106
G' ( )
[Pa]

10 5 10 -1
10 -1 100 101 10 2

Strain [%]
© Cabot Corporation 2010
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Tan d correlates well with measured tire rolling resistance

Results from different tread compounds applied to the same carcass

( ² higher in this case means less = better)
115

²Tyre Rolling Resistance Index 110

105

100

95

90

85 Test data provided courtesy of

Kraiburg Austria GmbH. & Co.,
www.kraiburg-retreading.com
80
0.1 0.11 0.12 0.13 0.14 0.15 0.16 0.17 0.18 0.19 0.2

Tan Delta (max) of tread compound

~10% Truck tread Tan Delta reduction*

~4% Truck Tire RR reduction ~ 1% less Fuel Consumption

© Cabot Corporation 2010 (* depending on traffic type, tire type, tyre position, drive style etc.)
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Without fillers, rubbers have low tan d

ASTM N234 in S-SBR (Strain sweep @10 Hz, 70°C)

0.30

0.25
0 phr
10
0.20 20
30
Tan d 40
0.15
50
60
0.10 70

0.05

0.00
0.1 1 10 100 1000 DSA, (%)

Filler networking is thought to be the cause of this effect. But high

filler concentration is essential for good wear resistance

© Cabot Corporation 2010

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Goal: Reduce Hysteresis but maintain Wear Resistance

Two new families of filler have been developed

to achieve this:

Carbon silica dual Carbon blacks with

phase fillers modified aggregate
size distribution

ECOBLACK®

© Cabot Corporation 2010 ECOBLACK ® is a registered trademark of Cabot Corporation

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CRX™ 2xxx series dual-phase Fillers

• Carbon black and silica in the same particle

• Similar particle morphology to carbon black
• Sufficient surface area to maintain Tread Wear
• Up to 20% by weight of silica
• Similar manufacturing process to carbon black

Examples:
CRX 2006 ECOBLACK: STSA = 130 , COAN = 100, Silica wt% =10
CRX 2125 ECOBLACK: STSA = 130 , COAN = 110, Silica wt% =10

CRX™ is a trademark of Cabot Corporation

© Cabot Corporation 2010
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Dual phase fillers show unexpectedly low hysteresis

Experiment: Si content in CRX 2100 series

Tan Delta vs. Si content

0.25 • A relative small amount of Si in CRX
(50 phr in NR) 2100 has a disproportionate effect on TD
in NR compound.
60°C

0.20
TD max @ 60

• Effect is not linear, levels off @ 5%.

0.15
• 5% Si on a N100 surface area product
0.10 closes TD gap with HD Silica for > 50%

0.05
CRX 2100 base (130 STSA, 110 COAN)
0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 ASTM N234 (115 STSA, 100 COAN)
Si content ( %) 100% HD Silica

When Si content <5-6%:

— Reinforcement: Tensile, Tear, Modulus are similar to the base CB
— Mixing/Processing: the more Si wt%, the more (bad) Silica type
behavior
© Cabot Corporation 2010
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Payne effect of carbon, dual phase and silica fillers in NR

50 phr in NR, Strain sweep @10 Hz, 70°C The Payne Effect is generally
considered to be an indicator of
10
the extent of filler networking,
G' which is a key contributor to
MPa
8 hysteresis
HD Silica
6
ASTM N234 Silica has strong interaction with
4 silica; carbon has strong
CRX 2124 interaction with carbon
2

0
Forcing carbon and silica onto
0.1 1 10 100 the same particle reduces the
Strain, % potential of either one to form a
network
No coupling agent ; CRX2124 (4% Si,130 STSA,110 COAN)

© Cabot Corporation 2010

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Wear resistance similar to carbon black when Si wt% < 6

Natural rubber compounds with 47.5 phr of filler

120
Abrasion
index, % 110
CRX2125 + TESPT 1.5 phr
100
ASTM N110/HD Silica blend
90

80

70

60

50

40
HD Silica 0 20 40 60 80 100 %
TESPT 0 1.2 2.4 3.6 4.8 6.0 phr
N110 100 % 80 60 40 20 0

CRX 2125 has similar Tan Delta as a 50/50 ASTM N110/Silica blend, the vertical
RED arrow indicate Abrasion advantage of CRX 2125 at equal Tan Delta
© Cabot Corporation 2010
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Lab results have been validated by tyre tests
courtesy of MRPRA, UK (“Test 1”) and Kraiburg Austria GmbH (“Test 2”) (¹ lower = better ² higher = better *+1.5 phr TESPT)
CRX 2006 and CRX 2125 show ~15% lower rolling resistance than ASTM N134 ….
100 100
Test 1 Test 2
Relative rolling resistance ¹

Relative rolling resistance ¹

95 95

90 90 ASTM
ASTM
N134 ASTM N134
(48 phr) 85
85 N134
(37 phr) CRX* CRX*
+ 2006 80 2125
80
SiO2* (50 phr)
(15 phr)
75 75

…… while tread wear penalty is much smaller than other filler options
120
100
Test 1 Test 2
Relative Tread Wear ²

Relative road wear rate ²

110
95
100 N 13 4
90 ASTM CRX 2125
N134 ASTM CRX* 90

85 (48 phr) N134 2006

(37 phr) (50 phr) 80
+
80
SiO2* 70
(15 phr)
75
60
100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170
© Cabot Corporation 2010 Surface area (STSA;m2/g)
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Broad Aggregate Size Distribution Carbon Black

• Higher surface area carbon blacks generally give better tread

wear but also higher hysteresis
• The average inter-aggregate distance decreases with
increasing surface area

dagg= 6000 ( kf -1/3 b -1/3-1)b 1.43

rS

feff 0.0181DBPA+1 M. -J. Wang, S. Wolff and E. -H Tan, Rubber

b=
f = 1.59
Chem. Technol., 66, 178 (1993).

Tan d is directly related to

this inter-aggregate
distance

© Cabot Corporation 2010

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How does broad aggregate size distribution help ?
Mono disperse Particles Broader Distribution

“ … broad ASD can

give larger average
inter-aggregate
distance, without
decreasing the overall
interfacial area ….”

ASD is Measured by sedimentation in a disc centrifuge

1.2

ASTM N375
1.0
VULCAN® 1436
ASTM N220
0.8
Fraction

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
© Cabot Corporation 2010 Aggregate Size, (um)
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VULCAN® 1436 : Cabot’s N200 type product based on that concept

… has broad ASD, high structure and low hysteresis … and a very attractive Rolling
resistance/ Tread Wear trade off
ASTM STSA OAN Tint (Truck tire test, courtesy of MRPRA, UK)
Cabot Grade code m2/g ml/100g % ITRB
100
VULCAN® 6 N220 105 114 115

Relative rolling resistance ¹

VULCAN® 1436 96 143 108
95
VULCAN® J N375 90 114 116
VULCAN® M N339 87 120 113
90 ASTM
N234
(50 phr)
0.18 85
VULCAN
80 1436
Tan d max @ 70°C

0.15 (48 phr)

75

0.12

100

Relative Tread Wear ²

0.09
ASTM N220 95 ASTM VULCAN
ASTM N375 N234 1436
0.06 (50 phr) (48 phr)
ASTM N339 90
VULCAN® 1436
0.03 85

0.1 1.0 10 100

80
Strain %
© Cabot Corporation 2010 (¹: lower = better ²: higher = better )
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Very broad ASD, high Structure concept applied to

surface areas beyond Vulcan 1436
Concept validation by Tyre rolling resistance test:
(¹: lower means here less = better )

110
Relative Rolling Resistance ¹

Vulcan 1391
105

ASTM N134 ‘Normal’ grades (ref’s)

100
CRX1491

95 Very broad ASD

ASTM N234 CRX1539
grades
90
CRX1406
85
Test data provided courtesy of
Kraiburg Austria GmbH. & Co.,
80 www.kraiburg-retreading.com
100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170

Carbon Black Surface area (STSA in m2/g)

© Cabot Corporation 2010

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Summary and Conclusion

• Tyre rolling resistance is a considerable contributor to the global

consumption of petroleum
n Hysteresis of filled rubber compounds is a major root cause

• New particle technologies have been developed to reduce hysteresis

while maintaining the beneficial effects of fillers:
1) Carbon Silica dual phase Fillers
2) Wide ASD, High structure carbon blacks

• The 2 new technologies can be combined to form a particle with even

further optimize balance in Rolling Resistance and Tread wear

• What impact can that make on the Fuel consumption of Commercial

vehicles ? ECOBLACK CRX 2125 example:
n 10-15% Rolling Resistance reduction at N200-N100 tread wear level
n Such Rolling Resistance reduction corresponds to ~3-4% less Truck Fuel
n USA example (see slide 2 “ ..US Trucks consumed 130,000 million liter diesel in 2004 ..”)

saving ~4,000 to 5,000 million liters of

© Cabot Corporation 2010
Diesel in the USA