Conti, Bridgestone team up on run-flat systems

TOKYO (Jan. 22)—Continental A.G. and Bridgestone Corp. have agreed to work together to develop global standard run-flat systems for installation on standard wheels for passenger cars and light trucks. Under terms of a deal signed in Tokyo, the firms will cross-license their respective run-flat tire technologies—the Conti Safety Ring and Bridgestone's Self Supporting Runflat Tire systems. However, both companies will continue to work independently to develop their own run-flat systems, and compete in markets for those systems, they said. Bridgestone has set a goal of producing 1.5 million run-flat tires in Japan by 2005, up from about 100,000 units in 2001.