Cabot's Tire Products sector covers all applications related to the manufacture of tires. Since tires have many components, all of which serve a particular function within the tire, there are many different grades of carbon black used in a tire. 

Additionally within the Tire segment we can further classify tires into sub-segments such as passenger, light truck, medium truck, heavy duty truck, off-the-road and racing.  Each of these sub-segments has their own particular requirements and may use different grades of carbon back per component.

Here we briefly review a few Tire categories and their key requirements and how carbon black may affect their performance.

Passenger Tires

This is the largest segment of the Tire Industry and consumes the largest amount of carbon black.  Key requirements include relatively good tread wear and low rolling resistance.  Reinforcing blacks such as VULCAN®7H (N234), VULCAN 3H (N347), VULCAN M (N339) and VULCAN 10H (N134), often in combination with Silica, are used in the tread compound.  Additionally Cabot has developed a new functionalized filler CRX4210 (Carbon Silica Dual Phase Filler) that combines the tread wear characteristics of carbon black with the lower hysteresis capability of coupled Silica.

REGAL®300 (N326) is used almost exclusively in the wire skim area of the tire.  Semi-reinforcing blacks such as STERLING®V (N660), STERLING SO (N550) and STERLING NS-1 (N762) are used in the body ply, sidewall and innerliner components of the tire. 

Medium Truck Tires

The key characteristics of Medium truck tires are excellent tread wear, acceptable fuel economy and moderate heat build-up and good cut/chip and tear resistance.  Typical grades used in Medium truck treads include N234, N134, N121, N115 and more recently VULCAN 1436.

Since it is very cost effective to re-tread truck tires the carcass of the tire is designed to last beyond the original tread service life.  Cabot grades REGAL 300 (wire skim) and VULCAN 3 (sidewall) help to impart the needed durability to the tire components to allow several re-treads.

Racing

The racing tire segment is relatively small but may require designer grades of carbon black depending on the type of race.  Cabot produces several VULCAN and CRX tread grades that are specifically designed to give the proper balance of grip and durability.