Hankook Tire has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the formation of strategic technological partnership with LANXESS, the world’s largest synthetic rubber supplier, to co-develop synthetic rubber technologies for high-performance tires. Under this agreement, the two companies will jointly study the development of new high-performance synthetic rubber grades and applications, which will increase the performance of tires from early stages of product development.
Targeted at the fast-growing high-performance tire market, this agreement builds upon an ongoing close partnership between Hankook Tire and LANXESS. The initial partnership began in 2008 for the supply of core materials for high-performance tires such as solution styrene butadiene rubber (S-SBR) and neodymium performance butadiene rubber (Nd-PBR). The newly established technical partnership will strengthen the ties between the two companies and expand the collaboration areas in the development of core synthetic rubber solutions for high-performance tires.
This form of technical partnership represents part of Hankook Tire’s continued R&D efforts. Coupled with the company’s investment for a new Central R&D Center and a Test Engineering Center in Korea, this additional R&D effort based on a far more interactive knowledge sharing with the partner company is expected to accelerate Hankook Tire’s pursuit to further advance its technological prowess.
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