Sumitomo Rubber Industries’ Sensing Core tyre sensing technology has been awarded the prestigious Tire Technology of the Year Award at the 2019 Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence. The awards ceremony was held as part of the Tire Technology Expo 2019, which took place from 5th March to 7th March 2019 in Hanover, Germany.
This is the third time that Sumitomo Rubber Industries has received the award for outstanding technologies, having won the award with their ‘fourth generation run-flat tyre technology’ in 2010 and the ‘advanced 4D Nano Design new materials development technology’ in 2017.
At this year’s awards ceremony, Mr. Hiroaki Kawasaki, Manager DWS Business Team explained; “Tyres are one of the core components that determine the basic functions of a vehicle – vehicles cannot drive without tyres. In the future mobility society in which autonomous driving and car sharing will become popular, the importance of such tyres will grow ever greater.”
Sensing Core is a new tyre technology which changes the tyre itself into a sensor. It is able to detect tyre traction level and tyre pressure loss through software algorithms, without the need for any additional hardware. Mr Kawasaki “believes that Sensing Core is one of the key technologies that will contribute to the realisation of autonomous driving and a safer mobile society.”
Sensing Core is a technology that analyses wheel speed signals (generated by tyre rotation) to detect information on road conditions (such as traction) and tyre load. Through further development, future iterations of this technology will be able to aggregate this tyre data with various cloud-based information collected through industries and users, which will then allow vehicles to utilise data to better sense and pre-empt potential hazards arising out of both road and tyre conditions.
Held in Europe each year since its inception in 2001, the Tire Technology Expo is a trade exhibition and technical conference involving tyre manufacturing and the overall tyre industry. Each year, the expo features various research reports and presentations from tyre manufacturers as well as raw material suppliers and public research institutions, culminating in an awards ceremony that recognises outstanding technical achievement in five separate categories.