Tire technology: Kumho tech center vital for growth

FAIRLAWN, Ohio—As Kumho Tire U.S.A. Inc. positions itself for an expanded presence in North America following the recent opening of its first U.S. plant, the tire maker's Kumho American Technical Center in Fairlawn will continue to play a big role in its growth.

Kumho's $450 million plant in Macon, Ga., gives the firm an annual capacity of 4 million passenger and light truck tires and will serve as a foundation to enhance its original equipment market share in North America. With that in mind, KATC is looking to expand its staff of about 20 and add to its testing capabilities to accommodate new projects.

“As we add different OE customers, they may require a certain test, so we may add equipment here and there,” said David Klekamp, general manager at KATC. “For example, we don't currently have an electrical resistance machine, so we're talking about maybe adding one of those because of certain OEM requirements for electro resistance.

“We're looking for new engineers, of course, and new technicians, but we're not doing an expansion of the building. We're just doing an expansion of the work force, because we're trying to grow the North American business, especially with the new plant here.”

Kumho transitioned to its current U.S. technical center—a 20,400-sq.-ft. facility in Fairlawn, west of Akron—in 2001, from its previous location, a 2,500-sq.-ft. center it opened less than a mile away in 1991. The tire maker spent approximately $2 million to build the Fairlawn facility.

According to Kle-kamp, the center's mission is to work toward accelerating the tech-nology and customer acceptance of the Kumho brand in North America.

“We want to become an elite tire manufacturer and global supplier of tires for all our customers,” he said. “We don't produce all types of tires, but the tires that we do produce we want to be considered in the top of the field. If we're not there now, that's where we want to be.”

For its part, the facility handles a variety of product development and testing procedures, working at times independently from and in cooperation with Kumho's other technical centers, in Yongin City, South Korea; Frankfurt, Germany; and Tianjin, China.

“Some of the projects we spearhead just because we have much better knowledge of the market in North America, and specific market conditions,” said Ed Cercek, a tire engineer at KATC. “On other projects we're more advisory—they kind of run the show, and we sit in the coaching box, if you will.”

KATC has had a role in developing a number of recent Kumho product additions, including the Road Venture AT51 all-terrain tire, Solus TA71 grand touring all-season tire and Solus TA11 standard touring all-season tire.

“We do have a lab here that's a fully functional lab that you'd see in pretty much any type of research center,” Klekamp said. “We do have the ability to do computer-aided design. We have various proprietary design software here at Kumho, and we also have a warehouse here where we can bring in tires for testing, whether it be for lab testing or on-vehicle testing.”

Among its capabilities, the tech center is able to test raw materials, chemicals, tire footprints and spring rates, he said. One thing the facility doesn't have, he noted, are 67-inch drums for endurance testing, but Kumho's Macon plant can make its equipment available for use.

Though Kumho does not yet have a tire test track in North America, the idea is “still being talked about,” according to Klekamp.

Ed Cercek, a tire engineer at KATC, said the location of the facility has come with a number of benefits.

“Everyone considers the Akron area still the tire capital of the world,” he said.

“You've got (the University of Akron) here; you've got the polymer center here. A lot of chemical companies, and the rubber manufacturing companies and corporate processing companies still have offices in the area. Even though the manufacturing has left, everyone still views Akron as sort of the think tank of the industry.”

In addition to its own tire development, Kumho contracts out some testing locally through Akron Rubber Development Laboratory Inc. and Smithers Group Inc.

As the automotive industry continues to evolve, so too does KATC's area of focus when it comes to tire technology.

“There's a lot of different types of technology—lots of different types of tires actually and different types of technology—that goes into these tires,” Klekamp said. “If you're talking about OE, OEMs are looking at things like how to keep the tires even quieter. We have technology called Silent Technology to try to improve the noise of the tires.

“We have sealant tires to improve the robustness against nails and that kind of stuff on the road,” he added. “There are a lot of different areas of technology.”

In addition, KATC always must stay abreast of what the competition is doing, Klekamp said, adjusting its product development speed when the market calls for it.

“If they're bringing replacement tires into market every eight months—I'm not sure we could do that, but if somebody's doing it that means it can be done—we'd have to consider it,” he said.

“I'd say most replacement market tires we're trying to bring in every two to three years with the new tire lines. OEMs are on that same kind of cycle. ... Recently we've been working on some projects where we're trying to do replacement market development in as little as 18 months.”

Klekamp added it's “no secret” that tire makers are heavily focused on improving tread compounds right now. “That includes not only the cap compounds but also the base compounds,” he said.

“We're constantly benchmarking the competition as well as trying to come up with different ideas of our own from a compounding standpoint, but if we want to be successful with the OEM business we know we have to help them with their CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) requirements.”