LANXESS, the pioneer of synthetic rubber, is participating in the first Tire Label Legislation & Marketing Conference (TLLM) in Brussels from October 3 – 4, 2012. In recent years, the specialty chemicals company has amassed a wealth of expertise and experience in the development of high-performance specialty elastomers for the production of energy-efficient tires. Not only will company employees give a topical presentation at the conference, the team will also have its own stand, offering a lively forum for exchanging expert ideas on the growing role of modern high-performance polymers in tire development.

"The timing of the first TLLM conference could hardly have been more symbolic," says Christoph Kalla, head of Marketing in the LANXESS Performance Butadiene Rubbers business unit (PBR), who will explain the relationship between sustainability and polymer chemistry in a detailed paper entitled "Sustainable Mobility – How to Bring it on the Road". "From November, tire labeling legislation will come into force in Europe. It will give tire buyers an insight into how energy-efficient a tire is, in a similar way to the system that was put in place some years ago for refrigerators. We expect this regulation to have a number of benefits. First and foremost, it will help increase public interest in what, until now, has been a very anonymous material, namely rubber. Moreover, our modern high-end synthetic rubber provides developers with a number of trump cards for designing fuel-saving tires".

For this reason, LANXESS is encouraging the growing "green" awareness among consumers, for example with useful fuel-saving tips for car drivers and a fuel savings calculator app for smartphones. But while this may answer important questions for customers, it raises new questions for the tire industry. Products with very good rolling resistance (grade "A") are still very thin on the ground. And, can a tire's thirst for energy really be reduced without making any compromises on the tire's wet grip and abrasion properties, or even on its service life?

"These are precisely the starting points with, for example, our functionalized styrene-butadiene rubber and our rugged modern Nd-PBR grades," says LANXESS expert Kalla. "There is still plenty of scope for new developments, and there is also still room for improvement in terms of the processing properties. That is why everyone involved in tire development will be in a win-win situation with tire labeling. Basically, everyone will benefit: car drivers, producers of high-grade synthetic rubber and tire manufacturers whose customers can at last see, black on white, the value of the extensive development work. In November, a new era will start for the tire industry. We are perfectly positioned to give our customers the support they need to come up with top performances in this changing and challenging market. The TLLM is an excellent forum to put across this message."

For more information on "Green Mobility", go to www.green-mobility.com.