Meyer: Industry intent on finding the ‘next big thing'

Reporting on new technology developments is a big part of our charter here at Rubber News. And we've been doing a good bit of this lately, covering conferences in Akron, Tennessee and Germany.

Depending on the topic, Ed Noga, my predecessor as editor, would refer to some of these stories as "sliced bread" articles. As in the company was claiming a breakthrough that "was the best thing since sliced bread."

Now, I'm not ashamed to say that I am rooting for the team at Continental Carbon to succeed with what it touted at the ACS Rubber Division's International Elastomer Conference in Knoxville, Tenn. The Houston-based producer of carbon black started the rollout of a next-generation carbon black it dubbed Continext-LH.

The firm claims the new family of materials can rival and even surpass the properties of HD silica in tread compounds, bringing simultaneous improvements in rolling resistance, wear resistance and wet traction. Yes, all three sides of the magic triangle of tire industry production.

In speaking with Ed Vega, director of Continental Carbon's Technology Center, I was intrigued by the story, and taken in by the excitement of his staff at the possibility of this new material. You see, for much of the past two decades, the members of the firm's technical team were tasked with supporting its plants and customers, as they focused on the commodity side of the market.

Don't get me wrong. Those are important duties, but if you're a chemist, engineer or scientist, you want to be pushing the edges of how new technology can redefine a process or an industry.

When a new president changed the direction of the Technology Center five years ago to again focus on R&D projects, the team went to work and developed Continext-LH. The firm is in the early stages of what will be a long road to acceptance, and a tough task challenging silica technologies that have been crucial in battling rolling resistance.

Can they succeed? Vega, for one, thinks they can. He says their lab work has been thorough and has been able to replicate results even the team found difficult to believe, with independent studies confirming the tests.

It's definitely a story we'll be keeping an eye on going forward. Stay tuned.

Meyer is editor of Rubber News. He enjoys sliced bread and hearing about your new technologies. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @bmeyerRPN.