The future of transportation depends on the evolution of tyres. As the vehicles become smarter, safer and more sustainable, tyres must evolve as well.
The demand for tyres is increasing significantly. It’s not that more of the same vehicles are being manufactured – vehicle types are also becoming more varied and complex, requiring a wide range of customized and technical tyres.
Autonomous vehicles are driving on city streets and highways and working on farms and in mines. Fleets of self-driving, around-the-clock equipment will require creative new tyre management solutions. The trend toward electric vehicles (EV) means major changes for the tyre industry. As EVs are heavier and produce immediate torque, tyres need to be designed differently to optimize their efficiency and performance.
The transformation of transportation presents new and sizable challenges for tyre manufacturers but also exciting opportunities to innovate, grow and lead. Five key treads will give tyre manufacturers a sure grip on the road to this future: connection, cost reduction, performance, sustainability and simplification.
- Connection Tread
For most manufacturers, the tyre design process still involves manual processes and disconnected tools. The resulting lack of collaboration and continuity between departments and sites can lead to duplication of effort and costly, time-wasting errors.By connecting 3D design and simulation on one platform, tyre manufacturers can remove these roadblocks and hit the accelerator on innovation. This new level of connection enables tyre manufacturers to respond to shifting customer demands more quickly and effectively.
- Cost Reduction Tread
It takes more than 200 raw materials to make a tyre. The price of many of these raw materials is rising. The research and development, innovation and validation that goes into making a new tyre are long, expensive processes.Tyre manufacturers can save time and money by streamlining their processes. Disconnected tools, manual processes, in-house software development, physical testing and lack of traceability all drive up costs. Moving the whole process onto a single, connected platform improves collaboration and efficiency and enables full digital life tracking.
- Performance Tread
Performance means different things to different tyre customers: precision handling, safety, low rolling resistance to maximize mileage, feather-light weight and with the rise of EVs, a tyre that does its job quietly. Unfortunately, a tyre design that improves one aspect of performance often degrades another. Manufacturers must strike the right balance for each tyre they make.
- Sustainability Tread
Efforts to make transportation more sustainable have been underway for decades. The 3DEXPERIENCE platform enables tyre manufacturers to accelerate innovation when it comes to “green tyres.” Green tyres have some or all of the following properties: they’re lighter, longer lasting, re-tread able, produced from renewable materials and/or more fuel-efficient due to lower rolling resistance.
- Simplification Tread
The tyre manufacturing is becoming increasingly complex with new vehicles and equipment. While the old “paper and pencil” way of doing things sounds nostalgically simple, it actually causes many complications: design inaccuracies, long validation times, silos that isolate teams and locations and the loss of valuable knowledge when team members move on.
Transitioning to a single platform can dramatically simplify operations for tyre manufacturers by removing silos and democratizing design and simulation within the organization. The future success of tyre manufacturers depends on how quickly and effectively they respond to the technological revolution that is already underway and picking up speed. EDS Technologies with its technical competence and comprehensive solutions from Dassault Systèmes have ensured multiple tyre manufacturers a smooth a smooth, safe, sustainable ride into the future and zoom ahead of the competition with 3D design, simulation, social listening and product lifecycle management on a single, collaborative platform: 3DEXPERIENCE.
For more details, contact us at marketing@edstechnologies.com
