Multiple Applications, Multiple Roles: How Carbon Black Technologies Help Tires Roll Better

Carbon black has contributed a series of important performance enhancements to tires, ranging from increased wet and dry traction to decreased rolling resistance. This paper briefly discusses the roles that carbon black plays in tire manufacturing, then moves broadly through a decade-by-decade list of key technical milestones for carbon-black formulation and applications. The paper ends with a discussion of 2 new technologies for tire fillers: carbon-silica dual-phase, fillers for rubber, and chemically modified carbon blacks, a promising breakthrough that confers controlled reactivity to carbon-black filler. Overall, the paper demonstrates that carbon black has played a leading role in enhancing tire life and performance.