All language subtitles for Tomorrows.World.Today.S04E14.The.Tires.of.Tomorrow.480p.x264-mSD_track3_[eng]

[narrator] Join us on
Tomorrow's World Today

as we journey through
the worlds of inspiration,

creation, innovation
and production

to find the ideas
and technologies

that are shaping our future.

In this episode, we visit
the world of production

to explore the technology
and sustainability

behind tire manufacturing.

From Inventionland
World Headquarters,

here's your host,
George Davison.

This is a hoof buffer.

It's made from rubber

and it goes underneath
a horseshoe

to help keep horses
from slipping on the road.

You know, when
they're wet or icy.

It was invented and patented
back in the 1800s.

Now, you might be wondering
what this device

has to do with Tomorrow's World.

Well, believe it or not,

it first came up for sale
back in the 1800s

by a company that's still
around today.

But instead of connecting the
bottom of a horse's hoof to the road,

this company's inventing new ways
to keep tires connected to the road.

I'm sending David on a mission

to explore how Continental
has evolved

into one of the largest automotive
technology suppliers in the world.

[Christian Koetz] The tire is one
of the most safety-relevant products

on a vehicle, is it a car, is it a
truck, is it whatever application.

It carries the load,
it carries the forces.

If you don't have
a reliable tire,

if you don't have
a reliable product,

you make safety compromises.

Continental started
as a rubber company

founded in 1871,

and then very, very soon
after the foundation,

tires became part
of our portfolio.

Actually, the first tire
we produced

was the emerging
of the bicycles.

And then very quickly after,

I think the first car
hit the road in 1898

and we were one
of the first manufacturers

of pneumatic tires for cars.

In those days, those tires
were still, I think,

slick tires or treadless tires.

If you used your car today
with a slick tire,

you know, grip is an issue.

So the total industry
tried to figure out

some solutions
for this challenge.

And actually in 1904,
we were then the first company

coming out with treaded,
or tires with a pattern.

I am personally very often asked, "What is
the technology potential out of the tire?"

Because from
an outside perspective,

if you're an end consumer

or not closely linked
to the tire industry,

the tire, since 50-80 years more
or less looks basically the same.

We believe individual mobility
will continue to grow.

We have a very heterogeneous
picture worldwide.

Then, on the technological
side, new technical solutions,

new products, more
services around the product,

so that the end consumer,
the fleet owner,

whatever the customer is,

don't need to worry about
our product, the tire, at all,

and not just buying
the product and using it,

but we will take care for
everything around the tire.

And I mean, there are not
many companies out there

who have been for 150 years

independent and on their own.

We are very proud about that.

Contributed quite a lot
to the development of mobility

over the 150 years,
and we will continue to do so.

[David] I'm in Clinton,
Mississippi,

at the new
Conti Tire Truck plant.

This state-of-the-art Continental
tire facility opened in 2019

and it's dedicated
to truck tires.

Continental has come a long way

since it introduced
its hoof buffers in 1871.

Since then,

they've also created
solid tires for bicycles,

the patterned tread
for automotive tires

and even detachable rims

which, if you've ever had to
change a tire on the side of the road,

you definitely benefitted
from that innovation.

Today, Continental has started
using Russian dandelions

as an alternative source of
raw material for the rubber tree,

which makes for some
environmentally-friendly tire production.

I'm going to meet
with Marco Rabe,

who's going to tell me all about
the technology behind tires.

- Marco, I'm David.
- David, nice to meet you.

So, I had no idea so much
went into designing a tire.

I'd love it if you'd walk me
through that.

Yeah, as you can see,
we design tires

for all kinds of applications,

starting with bicycle tires,
motorcycle tires,

off-road tires, racing tires,
of course, truck tires.

It all starts virtually
on a computer

as we simulate
for every kind of condition

the tire will see
out on the field.

[David] This looks like
a segment of a tire to me,

is that what we have here?

Yes, this is actually
a cross-section

of a truck tire.

And as you can see,
it's not just rubber.

Of course, we have about 10

different rubber compounds
in here,

but there's also a lot of steel.

Let's go out and see
how we manufacture those.

Looking forward to it.

David, I'd like you to meet
Ryal Siem, our plant manager.

Ryal, great to meet you.

Glad to meet you, David.

So, where are we?

We're in raw materials.

This is where rubber
and chemicals are received

to produce tires.

Let's take a walk to the mixing
department and I'll show you.

Great.

Okay, I'm no mathematician,
but I'm assuming

this is the first stage
of production.

What happens here?

[Ryal] This is mixing.

This is where rubber
and chemicals are mixed

to produce tires.

Okay, I could be wrong,
but I believe this is rubber.

[Ryal] This is finished rubber
that we use

to make components
up in extrusion. Take a look.

[David] Okay, Ryal.
In my world,

this looks like an extruder,

but I don't think
we're making pasta.

You're exactly right,
we're in the extrusion area.

This is where we make many of
the components that build a tire.

So, this is an example
of our sidewall line.

All right, let's go up
to the tire build area.

[David] Okay, this is looking
way more technical

than anything I've seen so far.

[Ryal] You're exactly right.

This is one of
the most sophisticated

pieces of machinery
we have in the plant.

This is our
tire building machine.

This is where all the components

such as the side wall,
the inner liner,

the carcass and the beads
all come together

to form a green tire.

So, David,
here we have a green tire.

Why don't you take a feel of it

and you can see
how soft the rubber still is?

Oh, that is soft.
I don't think we're getting

many miles out of this tire.

No, not many miles out of this.

[Ryal] So, what happens now is

this tire is gonna go
onto the conveyor,

and afterwards
it's gonna go to curing.

Welcome to curing.

What I've caught on to?
Curing equals hot.

[Ryal] That's because of
the temperature

and the pressure required
to cure a tire.

[David] So, what does
that process look like?

[Ryal] Well, here in a moment,

the tire will go
into the cavity.

Once it goes into the cavity,
that's where it'll heat

and it'll cause the imprint
for the tread

in for the side wall.

[David] And then after that?

After that, it stays in there

approximately 30 minutes
to an hour.

And then it leaves here
and it goes to final finish.

[David] Okay, I'm gonna
go out on a limb here.

I think we have a finished tire.

You're exactly right.

This is final inspection.

Every tire goes through here

to ensure our quality
that goes to our customers.

Let's take a walk over to
the finished goods warehouse,

and we'll take a look
at a lot of tires.

- You lead the way.
- [Ryal] Let's go.

[Ryal] Welcome to our finished
goods warehouse, David.

[David] So this is where
all the tires come

before you ship them
to your customers.

[Ryal] You're exactly right.

[Marco] But not before
we test them.

So let's go to Uvalde, Texas,
to see how we test our tires.

Excellent, let's go.

[engine roaring]

[tires screeching]

Welcome to Uvalde, David.

Our 5,000 acre facility
in Texas.

We test tires all over the world

for all kinds of conditions.

Today, we're going to be
looking at wet handling,

vertical traction and braking.

Do I get to ride or drive
any of these vehicles?

Absolutely. Let's go.

Sweet.

David, this is our first test.

We're going to be testing
these steer and drive tires

for a very important
safety concept

called aquaplaning.

So, aquaplaning is when
the road surface and the tires

do not contact
due to water, correct?

Exactly, and we're going to see

how these
trade patterns perform.

Ready to take a ride
in a big truck?

[David] Yes, I am.

Chris, my life's
in your hands, buddy.

- [Chris] All right, let's go.
- [Marco] Ready, Chris?

[Chris] Yup.

[Marco] So, David,
what did you think

of the aquaplaning test?

[David] I had a great time.

In fact,
hitting that wet surface

at 50 miles an hour,

I didn't really experience
any aquaplaning at all,

and in fact, the tires seemed

to dissipate
the water beautifully.

It was a smooth ride.

So, that's exactly
what the trade pattern

is designed for,
to get rid of the water

out of the footprint.

So next we're going to be
testing traction

on an off-road tire
up a steep dirt hill.

Are you ready to take
that truck up that hill?

- [David] I have to be.
- [Marco] Go for it.

All right, Chris. You wanna
walk me through this?

Yup. So, this one's
not too bad.

Um, just be consistent
with the throttle,

keep the steering wheel
pointed straight

and let the truck and tires
do all of the work.

- That's simple enough for me.
- Yep.

- [David] Little gas.
- [Chris] Yep.

[Chris] And just consistent.

[David] Consistent.

Marco, to say I've had
a blast today

is a huge understatement.

And I've learned that the tire
has a lot to do with

moving a vehicle forward.

I have a feeling the tire
has a lot to do with

helping a vehicle stop as well.

Absolutely. When we talk
about braking,

we have to talk about
the footprint of a tire.

So, the footprint
is the amount of tire

that actually is in contact
with the road.

Yes. The contact patch
is basically the only thing

connecting the vehicle
to the road.

And of course, the pattern
is really important,

as is the compound.

Those are all variables
we can control.

What we cannot control
is the environment out there.

Temperatures,
the humidity or moisture,

even the different
road conditions.

To do that, we've built
a very sophisticated

indoor test facility
in Germany called the AIBA.

Meletis will explain
all about that.

Now, the natural
next progression

is for the tire
to connect to the vehicle.

Nowadays, we can actually
talk to the tire.

- Come on, let me show you.
- Okay.

[Meletis] We are standing
inside the AIBA,

which stands for Automated
Indoor Braking Analyzer.

We are at the Contidrom,

which is our testing facility
north of Hanover.

We have a variety of tracks.

We have a number
of outdoor tracks.

We have a large oval outside.

We have a dry handling facility,

a wet handling facility.

We do have certified noise
testing facilities. All of those outside.

But we also have tracks, like the
one we're standing in here today,

that are indoor which are,
in many ways, special

because of the fact
that they're indoor.

So the AIBA is, as the name
implies, an indoor facility

that carries out
brake tests for us.

The thinking and the beauty
behind it is that because we're indoor

we are weather-independent,
and we have a system whereby we...

for lack of a better expression,
we shoot cars down test track,

and then the braking
takes place automatically

so there's nobody
sitting in the vehicle.

The engine is not running.
The vehicle is braking itself.

We measure the breaking
maneuver and we can thus analyze it.

At the end of the track the cars
are being turned around automatically

and put back into the lane, if you
like, and we can do basically up to four,

one after the other,
the whole time.

The idea behind it, as mentioned
earlier, is to try to get away

from testing outside
for a number of reasons.

Weather-independency
is one of them.

Not having to use fossil fuels
is another one.

Repeatability and reproducibility
of results is very much another one.

And, of course, the fact that this being
automated and weather-independent

you can run it 24/7.

- David, let me introduce Carolina Wagner.
- Carolina, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you, too.

This is how
we digitalize the tire.

Okay, so now I'm understanding.

So this is the piece of technology
that allows you to talk to the tire.

Exactly, and Carolina
will explain how this works.

Thank you, Marco. So,
did you know that, actually,

one out of three tires are
running out there underinflated?

Yeah. Funny story,
they're probably my tires.

Okay, then very much applicable.

So, this sensor actually
allows us to track temperature,

pressure, mileage, and tread depth
through our wirelessly connection

through the truck, through
the yard reader, and I can even

check that in my cell phone.

Okay, so that helps me understand
how the technology works,

but why would that be
important for your customers?

So, to our customers all they
care about is to keep up time,

to lower the costs, to improve the
performance, of course, of their tires.

We can even help them
optimizing their routes.

And ultimately,
to the environment, save fuel.

[David O'Donnell] We have had a very special
discovery over the last number of years

which we're working
very, very hard on.

Natural rubber traditionally
has come from Southeast Asia,

various countries
much further away,

often from the actual
production locations.

What we have worked
on intensively is can we go

to an alternative
natural rubber?

And what we have discovered
is this dandelion you see here,

which has a very high content of
natural rubber, the Russian dandelion.

And we have worked intensively
with various institutes,

our own internal
processes as well,

and developed further the
plant but also the type of farming

that's necessary to grow this in an
effective way for industrial applications.

We have already manufactured
tires directly from the roots of dandelion

in small quantities, but we're still
in the process of this ramping up

and discovering the best
technology, and the best solution,

and the best content of
natural rubber from dandelion.

Surely, what everybody thinks when you
see the plants, you immediately zoom in on,

"I've got this in my garden."
But, of course,

it's a much more
advanced version of that.

We'd be getting a lot more natural
rubber content, and this is something

which has to be then
progressively improved over time.

It doesn't require an
exceptionally special type of soil,

and that would be the advantage.

We could relocate then some of
the production of natural rubber

to multiple areas
across the globe

and not rely completely on
special conditions in Southeast Asia,

South America and so on.

Hey, Tom. Welcome to
Inventionland.

-Thanks, George. Thanks for having me.
-You bet.

Wait, you brought me
some flowers?

My wife might have something
to say about that, Tom.

I wanted to leave the
future of tires in your hands.

I don't know how you got
from flowers to a tire,

but I noticed some printing
on this tire I didn't recognize.

- This Taraxa-gum?
- Taraxagum.

Taraxagum. All right, what
is this? This is some kind of

- new technology?
- This is the sustainable tire of the future.

Where we used to
extract natural rubber

from trees that took
seven-year lifecycles to grow,

now we've taken
that same raw material,

that same product out of
a Russian dandelion root

to produce
a much more sustainable,

much more
environmentally-friendly product.

- Really? That's fabulous.
- Harvest in only one year.

That's amazing. So, we have a
dandelion. What I've seen in dandelions

basically in my life is, you know, these
weeds that we go out and we yank on 'em

and try to get 'em out of our
grass, but whenever I do that

sometimes I snap it off
on the stem and I notice

that there's a white ring
around there,

and if you touch it
it's really gummy.

It's kind of, like, I guess, the
gum of a rubber tree, right?

Absolutely. That's what
our R and D team

and our fantastic scientists and chemists
came up with, is the idea that we can use

that same resource we got from
a tree from a Russian dandelion.

You're taking that, you're gonna
now move this into mass production,

or is it already
in mass production?

So the tire we sent you
is in mass production.

- It's a commercially-available tire today.
- Mmm.

We're using the product and
testing it today in also passenger tires

as well as commercial vehicle
tires, with the long-term introduction

to create a much more
sustainable future for our industry.

That's interesting. Yeah, because
mostly, I... rubber trees are mostly grown

in tropical, you know,
environments.

- This grows just about anywhere, right?
- Absolutely.

So, we can move the production
of the Taraxagum

- closer to the plants.
- Okay.

So we shorten the supply chain
as well as exactly what you said.

We're not just limited
to tropic environments.

Now we can grow
in more moderate climates

and we turn something
that was considered a pest

- into a natural form, fit and function for tires.
- My goodness.

So, tell me, what's this?

So, this is
the voice of the tire.

- So this is our tire module, our latest tire module.
- Okay.

It's installed in the tire. It connects
to our ContiConnect platform

and transmits data from
the tire, through our platform,

- to the cloud.
- Okay, so ContiConnect.

That's a cloud-based data
collection space, I take it?

That's our cloud platform where we take...
we transform the information from the tire,

pass it through a CAN bus in the
vehicle or through a telematic system

into the cloud, and then
we can share that information

both with our team so that
we can produce better products,

as well as with fleet owners who
need to know what's going on with

- all of their tires in their fleets.
- That's fabulous.

Examples, so we can predict tire
replacements. We can detect problems

before they become
really big issues,

and if you're a fleet customer
that's extremely important.

Very useful. Well, I guess
when you sent me this tire

I think you probably thought
I was driving a unicycle.

I only got one.

We'll have to get you another one
so you can have a full kit for your bike.

- [laughs] Thanks, Tom.
- Thank you.

Have a safe trip.

Oh.