Realizing rapid improvements in fuel efficiency for truck and bus tires

Advancement of Nano Balance TechnologyHyogo, Japan – March 12, 2018 – Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., LTD. (HQ: Itami, Hyogo Prefecture,President & CEO : Takashi Shimizu) aims to develop high-performance tires that can meet therequirements of society, and it is continuously working on technology innovation of "Nano BalanceTechnology", the indigenous rubber material development technology developed in 2011.
We are pleased to inform you that we have developed a new process development technology
contributing to significant reduction in fuel consumption from the “nano processing” aspect of Nano
Balance Technology, which is one of the fundamental technology systems for the rubber used in truckand bus tires.
■Nano Balance Technology
Nano Balance Technology is a technology for developing ideal rubber materials with high precision
through observation, prediction, material design and production control at the molecular (nano) level.
We use this to achieve a high level of tire rolling resistance (low fuel consumption performance) andbraking performance (wet grip performance). In addition to launching the fuel-efficient tire brand"NANOENERGY" which balances these two contradictory levels of performance at a high level, wealso use it in our Flagship brand "PROXES", thereby offering a range of high value-added products.
Moreover, even in trucks and bus tires, we have launched a series of products made by using low fuelconsumption tread having excellent heat generation based on the material design technology of Nano
Balance Technology.
[Fuel-efficient tires utilizing Nano Balance Technology]

NANOENERGY 0, the fuel-efficient vehicle tires
rated “AAA-a” per the globally recognized labelingsystem.

PROXES Sport, the global class highly fuelefficient sports tire equipped with therevolutionary Nano Balance Technology.

NANOENERGY M676, the all-weather fuel-efficient
truck and bus tire with rolling resistance reduced by
31% and longevity increased by 18% compared toprevious products.

■Aiming for advanced truck and bus tires to answer social needs
These days, the transportation devices that are the backbone of our social infrastructure must faceenvironmental regulation, and deal with the subject of improving transportation efficiency. Improving
fuel efficiency and sufficiency in longevity for the truck and bus tires used in transportation vehicles isthought to be one way to resolve such issues.
For further improvement in fuel economy of the current truck/bus tires, in order to achieve balance
between rubber characteristics of low energy loss/high wear resistance, which is a problem, the key
would be "How to disperse the filler in rubber". Because of this, we have been examining the possibilityof making improvements in the manufacturing process in all directions.
■Establishing new nano process technology with advanced filler dispersal
We have used transmission electron microscope and SPring-8 and we have analyzed dispersibility of
filler present in rubber used for manufacturing tires. Regarding the natural rubber used in truck andbus tires, even if rubber compound is blended with a mixer (mixing the solid rubber and the filler), thefiller cannot be uniformly dispersed in the solid rubber that is mainly used and it remains in the formsof agglomerate. When dynamic deformation is applied to this state, energy loss occurs due to contactof the fillers, etc, which becomes the main cause that adversely affects fuel economy.
For high level dispersion of filler in the compound, we have developed and established a new nanoprocess technology that optimizes the filler structure in the solid rubber before preparing thecompound. From this, our processing method achieves the ideal state of filler where it is uniformly
and highly dispersed even in solid rubber like natural rubber.
Our newly-developed nano process disintegrates
carbon black in a special solution and disperses itat the molecular level in the initial compoundcreation process while stirring and coagulating
natural rubber latex. We have further optimized
this process so that we can achieve our goal of"formation of highly dispersed filler at themolecular level".
■ 20% reduction in the energy loss ascompared with the past, practical applicationin Malaysia at the end of this year

Particle dispersion state of filler (left: conventional process/right:
new process)We have made improvements by focusing on theprocessing techniques of materials, and recently,
we have succeeded in developing a rubbercompound that can suppress the energy loss(tanδ*1) at the time of deformation by about 20%
even in a rubber based compound made by using
natural rubber etc.
*1) tanδ� Value obtained by dividing the loss elastic modulus when a sinusoidal
wave is applied to a viscoelastic body such as rubber with the storage modulus.

As for this advanced Nano Balance Technology, we have set up an R&D facility building with thepremises of our tire factory in Malaysia, where we have already completed R&D and demonstration.
In this summer, we plan to develop it as a production line, and within this year, we plan tocommercialize the development and production of new truck and bus tires.

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