Continental-Kordsa Produces First Tyre Series With Cokoon Dip

First 250,000 tires featuring Cokoon dip technology currently in production with more to be produced in 2020 and beyond

German tire giant Continental and Kordsa have announced that the series production of the first of 250,000 passenger car tires featuring their new sustainable adhesive technology began in 2019. The two partners have been working together on this new eco-friendly dip technology since 2017.

This new technology enables the bonding activation of textile reinforcing materials with rubber compounds without the use of resorcinol and formaldehyde in the textile dip. Textile reinforcing materials are widely used in tire manufacturing, as well as in the production of mechanical rubber goods such as hoses and conveyor belts.

Since the first announcement of Cokoon as an open innovation technology in March 2019, it has attracted a lot of attention within the industry. More than 40 companies (tire manufacturers, converters, and textile suppliers) have expressed an interest in testing the material and are considering joining the licensing pool.

Some 20 of these have already received samples. Now, all of the interested parties have been invited to join the pool and obtain free licensing in order to contribute to the development of this new green technology. The licensing pool is handled by the independent law firm AdvInno.

“The sampling process was a big success and exceeded our expectations. Feedback from the industry encouraged us to proceed with the integration of Cokoon into our tires and to begin series production of the first tires back in 2019. Expanding the use of the Cokoon technology in our tire production in 2020 and in the following years is a high priority for us,” says Dr. Andreas Topp, Vice President Material and Process Development and Industrialization at Continental Tires.

Devrim Özaydin, Global Technology Director at Kordsa, outlines the underlying idea: “With Cokoon, we want to implement an eco-friendly industry-wide standard for bonding textiles and rubber. We, therefore, invite all interested parties to join the pool, obtain free licensing, contribute to the enhancement of this new open technology and introduce Cokoon into their mass production.”