On October 8, 2011, Continental has celebrated its 140th anniversary. The company has blossomed from the “Continental-Caoutchouc- und Gutta-Percha Compagnie” founded in Hanover in 1871 to become one of the leading international automotive suppliers. It is time to look back at the early days of tire development and forwards to the future of the tire.

In the beginning was the truck

Before Continental made cars fit for the winter with special tires, trucks were running on them quite competently through mud and snow. Specific winter tires for the whole truck including the trailer and for buses have only recently become available, however.

The road is like a skating rink and slush has collected on the icy surface. A line of cars is creeping slowly up the hill. Suddenly in the middle of the line, a truck loses its grip and ends up straddling the road together with its trailer: everything comes to a standstill. Several lanes are blocked, the tailback is getting longer and longer — it is annoying for car drivers, but for haulage companies it is lost time and therefore lost money. For this reason, since 2010, Continental has been supplying its customers with the new generation of winter tires for trucks including the HTW 2 SCANDINAVIA for trailers: This tire remains on course even in extreme weather conditions and is a great help when braking.

“Trailer tires contribute over 50 percent of the braking performance — this is an essential factor in avoiding accidents,” explains Bernd Korte, Vice President Product Development & Industrialization for commercial vehicle tires at Continental’s Tire Division.

M+S alone is not enough

Continental has also developed a special winter tire for buses that — when fitted all-round — ensures a major gain in safety. “These latest innovations are based on our many years of experience with winter tires,” says Korte. Unlike summer tires for cars, modern premium tires for commercial vehicles are also suited to mud and snow — or “M+S” for short. This is because their rubber compound consists almost exclusively of natural rubber, which also ensures good grip on the road even in winter: It does not harden in cold temperatures and therefore meshes flexibly with the surface even at sub-zero temperatures. But that alone is not enough for the maximum safety that Continental has taken up as a cause.

“Today, snowy and icy roads that can bring traffic to a standstill are no longer an obstacle” is how Continental advertised its high-lug tires for trucks and buses back in 1937. “These days, heavy vehicles fitted with Conti off-road tires master wintry mountain roads just as safely and precisely as in summer.” The tires soon paid off for haulage companies because their vehicles got stuck less frequently. The goods arrived on time even in bad weather — a boost for industrialization, too.

The first generation of winter tires

Continental introduced the first official M+S tires in 1955. This certificate is a standard today; the foundation stone for the company's excellent reputation for truck winter tires was laid. The developers did not stop their revolutionary work there, however.

Since the sixties, winter tires for trucks and buses have been providing up to 50 percent more grip on snow-covered roads thanks to their optimized tread patterns.

In the seventies, radial casings, which could be retread, increasingly replaced conventional cross-ply casings. Since the eighties, modified sipes and a new tire contour have increased the mileage and also reduced noise. And, in the nineties, Continental launched the first generation of its SCANDINAVIA winter tires for commercial vehicles.

Deeper sipes for the front axle so that the tire keeps its winter suitability for longer and a particularly large number of fine sipes for the rear axle to provide a high level of traction.

“In countries like Russia, Canada and Scandinavia, special winter tires for trucks and buses have long since become the standard,” says development chief Bernd Korte. More and more countries are following and tightening up their laws to increase safety on winter roads. But: “Continental does not wait for the lawmakers,” emphasized Korte. “We see ourselves as pioneers for the future of road transport — even safer, even more economic — and we offer our customers what is technically possible and economically useful.”

More information on 140 Years of Continental

The series for the 140th company anniversary provides insight into the development of the tire: From the invention of winter tires for cars, commercial vehicles and bicycles through trends from the research laboratories to brand management for tires and international soccer sponsoring. Including an interview with Nikolai Setzer, head of the Tire Division and member of the Continental executive board.

Read more about the interesting history of Continental's Tire division – and where we are heading.