02/20/2009 Hanover, May 2008. Continental designs and supplies tires for all kinds of industrial applications. The product range is divided into mulitple product groups. These also include CLEAN solid tires and press-on bands, which are particularly complicated to manufacture.

It's all in the compound! The “clean” appearance of the light-coloured “CLEAN” tires makes these easier to identify than the black tires which we are more commonly known. A hundred years ago, tire manufacturers started to extend the lifetime of their products by mixing in soot, giving tires that were previously light their black colour. From 1918 onwards, this technical use of soot was adopted across the world. In comparison with clean tires, black tires do have lots of advantages, but they also have one disadvantage: They rub on light surfaces and leave black marks behind.

Solid tires are made from natural rubber, which, in its pure form, is unsuitable for tires. It is only by adding fillers that compounds can be achieved that satisfy the requirements of industrial solid tires: low rolling resistance, high wear resistance and stability. Since the beginning of the 1970s silicon has been used as a replacement for soot. “The properties required for tires can only be achieved if the surface of the silicon particle is changed,” explains Dirk Busmann, R & D Continental Industrial Tires. “This happens during the mixing procedure in what is called a silanisation process. However, this chemical reaction makes the manufacture of silicon compounds more complicated in comparison to soot compounds.”

It is only after silanisation has been successfully carried out that silicon improves the properties of the natural rubber as an active filler. Continental’s CLEAN tires don’t leave marks on light surfaces, nor do they need to fear comparisons with black tires. There are no differences with regards to good crack resistance, long mileage and low rolling resistance. This makes CLEAN tires the experts anywhere where cleanliness is particularly sought after: in the food and pharmaceutical industries and the optical, electronics and aerospace sectors.

Developing tires with a light compound presented Dirk Busmann with a variety of challenges: “The vulcanisation takes longer and the raw materials are more expensive. It is also essential that the moulds and machines are kept particularly clean. And last but not least, there is a small but subtle physical difference: Silicon conducts electricity significantly less than soot.“ Like the ground, the tires also have to be conductive and have electro-static discharge control to prevent the build-up of static charge. For this reason electro-static discharge strips were incorporated into the manufacture of the tread rubber.

The CLEAN range consists of

Solid tires

SC20 CLEAN

CSEasy SC20 CLEAN

SC15 CLEAN

SC11 CLEAN

SC12 CLEAN

Press-on bands

MH20 CLEAN

MC20 CLEAN

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SC 20 CLEAN

SC 20

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Continental is the only tire manufacturer to supply a comprehensive range of industrial tires, making it the No. 1 in Germany and Europe, and one of the top three worldwide.

With targeted annual sales of more than €26.4 billion in 2008, the Continental Corporation is one of the top automotive suppliers worldwide. As a supplier of brake systems, powertrain and chassis sys­tems and components, instrumentation, infotainment solutions, vehicle electronics, tires and engi­neering 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 Commercial Vehicle Tires division, which designs, produces and supplies lorry, bus and industrial tires worldwide, and employs more than 8,000 people, achieved a turnover of approximately €1.5 billion in 2007. The tire divisions are an Official Sponsor of UEFA EURO 2008^TM, which will be held in Austria and Switzerland in June 2008. For further details, visit the websites www.ContiSoccerWorld.de, www.ContiFanWorld.com and www.conti-online.com.