Tuesday, 12 September 2017

Commercial vehicle tyre technology

On Tuesday 10 May over 40 members and guests gathered at the Holiday Inn, Brighouse for a Yorkshire Region presentation from Steve Howat, general manager, technical services at Continental Tyres

After complimentary refreshments on arrival, provided from Yorkshire Region funds, Steve took to the floor for an informative and involving talk on commercial vehicle tyre technology.

Starting with a brief overview of Continental, Steve gave a run down of the many areas the company is now involved in, including autonomous vehicle technology and their position at the forefront of a technological revolution. A little known fact is that Continental tyres are responsible for turning the London Eye!

Returning to tyres, Steve advised that the company is expanding its role in the tyre arena considerably from the traditional role of a tyre manufacturer. This includes 'intelligent' developments such as Tyre Pressure Monitoring Systems (TPMS) that not only constantly communicate tyre pressures to the driver, but which can also update the vehicle operator or fleet manager via telematics. With the majority of catastrophic tyre failures being avoidable if action is taken promptly (85% of failures can be traced to a slow puncture), this can have a massive impact on down time for the vehicle and on potential inconvenience for other road users.

In the future there is the potential to expand on these systems with intelligent tyres not only monitoring tyres pressures, but other factors such as tread depth – in fact anything to do with tyres.

Systems could detect an issue with the tyre and alert the driver, directing them to a safe point where a mobile tyre fitter has also been despatched and is waiting to address the problem, for example.

Steve pointed out that whilst tyres typically make up around five per cent of the overall vehicle operating costs, they can have an influence on up to 40% of the vehicle running costs, not least of which is fuel consumption. Different tyre types are available for many different applications, but across all requirements, mileage remains operators' number one consideration.

The presentation then moved on to cover the four basic functions of the commercial vehicle tyre – carrying the load, transmission of force, directional stability and vehicle suspension damping, with Steve explaining each area in detail as well as covering the difference in steering and driving axle tyres and tyre construction, materials and methods.

Steve's presentation was delivered in his usual enthusiastic and knowledgeable style, with videos, samples and hand-outs supporting key points and questions welcomed throughout. Following a final round of questions from the floor, Yorkshire Region Chairman Ivan Marriott led the traditional show of thanks.

This is the second presentation that Steve has given to the Yorkshire Region and he would be highly recommended as a speaker to other regions.