Numerous polymers with varying macro and micro structures are offered by
the rubber industry for a large variety of tire applications. In order to improve the understanding of the achievable performance, tread enhancement additives from different chemical classes have been studied by investigating their behavior toward a variety of polymer blends being relevant for the design of tread compounds.
This paper will describe the phenomenology of the interaction of tread enhancement additives with these polymer systems and characterize the magnitude of performance improvements.