Birla Carbon designs for durability, off-road

Off road or on, tires will need to do a couple of things.

They have to be more sustainable, to start. And they need to be a whole lot more durable. Because in the end, durable, longer-lasting tires are more sustainable tires.

And when it comes to more durable, more sustainable tires, well, Birla Carbon can help with that. Especially in the ag tire space, where expectations around tire performance are changing.

"When you look at the stresses of the burgeoning population globally, (it is) putting pressure on agriculture," said John Loudermilk, Birla Carbon president and CEO. "We see agricultural tires requiring new performance characteristics to reduce their adverse impact on the ground in terms of where they use lower impact on the soil, so to speak."

And in the end, many of those expectations come right back around to longevity.

Because a tire's ability to perform optimally and for longer periods of time is what allows for greater sustainability. That leads to fewer raw materials used and fewer end-of-life tires overall.

"The most straight-forward way to reduce the footprint of the industry on the environment is to allow these tires to last longer. That is a very important aspect, particularly when you talk about off-the-road vehicles," Loudermilk said.

Birla Carbon, Loudermilk added, engineers its products to do exactly that—extend the lifetime of the tire.

"Whether that is tractors, whether it is these very large earth-moving trucks and things like that, wear properties tend to be extremely important in those applications to increase life, increase usability in those challenging environments."

Birla Carbon also designs its products to be more sustainable from the start. With bio-based and recycled feedstocks, for instance.

And then, of course, there's Continua, Birla Carbon's line of carbonaceous materials.

Continua contributes to the overall performance of the end product and the sustainability of manufacturer's operations, yes. But more than that, Continua embodies the greatest potential for end-of-life tires.

"We launched our Continua product, which is … sustainable carbonaceous material recovered from end-of-life tires, and that certainly is a way to drive circularity in our value chain," Loudermilk said.

That's especially true in the mining industry.

The ability of a product—be it a tire, belt or conveyor belt—to be durable is essential. Companies are looking for products that can outperform their predecessors as mining companies head into new places—more challenging terrain—to harvest the minerals needed for the next generation of vehicles.

"So when you look at the mining industry, for instance, and the conveyor belts in those applications, the raw materials are more and more challenging to obtain in harsher and harsher environments," Loudermilk said. "So finding a way to provide materials that allow this equipment to operate more reliably and over longer periods of time will ultimately allow those mining companies to be more effective with obtaining the various commodities required to support growth, not just in base industries where we think of mining being applied today, but the rare earth metals and graphite that are required to support lithium-ion batteries."

While it's true that tires account for a little more than 70 percent of the total carbon black usage worldwide, the second-largest sector for CB application lies with other rubber goods. And the demands for product performance are evolving in this space, too, Loudermilk said.

Yes, sustainability and product longevity/durability are among the most articulated expectations from customers in this arena. Reduction in weight is another.

And that certainly is a place where Birla's carbon black and carbonaceous materials can make a difference.

So Birla Carbon continues to invest in the development of products that provide greater value, and higher performance and more durability for tires as well as other rubber goods.

"These manufactured rubber goods, many have a much higher loading of carbon black than you would find in some tires," Loudermilk said. "And so, if we can provide performance in a lower loading, it gives the opportunity to reduce the weight of the material, and that has a favorable impact on the energy consumption of a vehicle or the piece of equipment that is using it. So that is really important."