03/04/2008 The New ContiWinterContact TS 830

Hanover / Geneva, March 2008. With the new ContiWinterContact TS 830, market leader Continental has achieved further progress in terms of driving safety, mileage performance and rolling resistance in a winter tire. All of this is made possible by sophisticated tread structures, modified sidewall design and new polymer compounds in the tread. Approved for speeds up to 240 km/h (131 mph), the new winter tire for vehicle rim sizes of between 15 and 16 inches will be available at tire dealers already in autumn.

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Wintry road conditions have lost none of their terror for motorists. And rightly so - the accident rate in winter is six times higher than in summer. As a matter of fact, over half of all accidents occur on winter roads (Continental Traffic Safety Analysis, 2004). Roads are increasingly congested and, for environmental reasons, less frequently salted. At the same time, those using the roads are more safety conscious. No surprise then that further development of winter tires remains a major engineering challenge.

New tire development has focused on braking and start-up under typical wintry conditions and on rain-slicked roads. For the new ContiWinterContact TS 830, tire developer Matthias Seng designed a directionally-orientated tread pattern with functional separation. The tread center has been geared to providing grip on ice, while the shoulder section ensures high braking performance in snow. For added effect, the central tread area of the new ContiWinterContact TS 830 features large lugs and densely packed sipes. On icy roads they make for a multiplicity of gripping edges. The tire shoulders are characterized by many smaller lugs and few sipes. This creates numerous edges for optimum grip on snow-covered roads. "In the shoulder section we thus have over 100 lug edges and a total sipe length of 30 meters across the entire tread", reports Seng. "Very high values like these provide excellent grip on snow and ice." The contact patch on this tire is even larger than on the previous model, ensuring large numbers of effective gripping edges for good road adhesion. By separating functional areas, it was possible to substantially defuse the usual development conflict between grip on snow and grip on ice.

The innovative, patented 3D sipes on the new ContiWinterContact TS 830 are designed in such a way as to offer a combination of very good longitudinal flexibility and ample cornering stiffness. This allows for comparatively fast steering response and higher cornering speeds – important factors when suddenly emerging obstacles have to be circumvented. Similarly effective is the directional design of the tread pattern. It ensures rapid expulsion of water on rain-slicked roads and fast removal of slush from the ground contact patch. With the directional design, tread elements can be arranged in such a way that very little tire/road noise is generated.

The tire developers from Continental were also able to make headway with respect to the silica compound technology employed. With the high-grip H.A.F.T. tread compound (HAFT = Hydrophilic Adhesion Fluid Technology), the tire holds better on snow-covered, icy and rain-slicked roads.

Matthias Seng is very satisfied with the advances achieved in meeting the most important demands winter tires face: "We managed to improve driving characteristics in snow and ice by up to 7%. What is more, on wet and dry roads the tire outperforms its predecessor by up to 5%. In terms of tire service life, we increased mileage performance by over ten percent." With the tread compounds employed in the ContiWinterContact TS 830, it is possible for a winter tire to achieve the same low rolling resistance as a summer tire, with the spin-off advantages of higher fuel-efficiency and fewer toxic emissions. The tread pattern of Continental’s new winter tire is also tailored to vehicles equipped with ABS and ESC systems.”

Production of the new ContiWinterContact TS 830 gets under way in summer, ensuring that the new winter tire will arrive punctually at tire dealers this autumn. Approved for speeds of up to 240 km/h (131 mph), the tire will initially be available in 18 sizes, in diameters of 15" and 16", widths of 185 to 215 mm and cross-sections of 65 and 55 percent.

With annual sales of more than €25 billion (based on 2006 figures), the Continental Corporation is one of the top five automotive suppliers worldwide. As a supplier of brake systems, powertrain and chassis systems and components, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics, tires and technical elastomers, the corporation contributes to enhanced driving safety and global climate protection. Continental is also a competent partner in networked automobile communication. The corporation currently employs approximately 150,000 people at more than 200 locations in 36 countries.

The tire divisions are an Official Sponsor of UEFA EURO 2008^TM, to be held in Austria and Switzerland in June 2008. For more information on this, check out www.ContiSoccerWorld.de, www.contifanworld.com and www.conti-online.com.