Cost analisys

Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
Campus Ciudad de México

Cost Analysis

Final Project: Tires Industry

12/11/07

Tire Industry
Tires are used on all types of vehicles, from cars to earthmovers to airplanes. Tires enable vehicle performance by providing for traction, braking, steering, and load support. Tires are inflated with air, which provides aflexible cushion between the vehicle and the road that smooth out shock and provides for a comfortable ride quality. Tires are pneumatic enclosures used to protect and enhance the effect of wheels.
The first tires were bands of iron, placed on wooden wheels, used in carts. The tire would be heated in a forge fire, placed over the wheel and quenched, causing the metal to contract and fittightly on the wheel. The tire then provided a wear-resistant surface to the perimeter of the wheel. This work was done by a skilled craftsman, known as a wheelwright. The first practical pneumatic tire was made by the Scot John Boyd Dunlop for his son's bicycle
The pneumatic tire also has a more important effect of vastly reducing rolling resistance compared to a solid tire. Because theinternal air pressure acts in all directions, a pneumatic tire is able to absorb lumps and bumps in the road as it rolls over them without experiencing a reaction force opposite to the direction of travel.
Pneumatic tires are made of a flexible elastomer material such as rubber with reinforcing materials such as fabric and wire. Tire companies were first started in the early 20th century, andgrew in tandem with the auto industry. Today over 1 billion tires are produced annually, in over 400 tire factories, with the three top tire makers commanding a 60% global market share.
This is a list of the most important events in the industry:
• 1844 – Charles Goodyear announces vulcanization
• 1846 – Robert William Thomson invented and patented the pneumatic tire
• 1870 –BFGoodrich founded
• 1888 – First commercial pneumatic bicycle tire produced by Dunlop
• 1888 – Michelin Tire Company founded
• 1889 – Dunlop Tire Company founded
• 1889 – John Boyd Dunlop patented the pneumatic tire in the UK
• 1890 – Dunlop and William Harvey Du Cros began production of pneumatic tires in Ireland
• 1890 – Bartlett Clincher rim introduced
• 1891– Dunlop's patent invalidated in favor of Thomson’s patent
• 1892 – Beaded edge tires introduced in the U.S.
• 1895 – Michelin introduced pneumatic automobile tyres
• 1898 – Schrader valve stem patented
• 1898 – Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company founded
• 1900 – Firestone Tire & Rubber founded
• 1900 – Cord Tires introduced by Palmer (England) and BFGoodrich (U.S.)• 1903 – Goodyear Tire Company patented the first tubeless tire, however it was not introduced until 1954
• 1904 – Goodyear and Firestone started producing cord reinforced tires
• 1904 – Mountable rims were introduced that allowed drivers to fix their own flats
• 1906 – First pneumatic aircraft tire
• 1908 – Frank Seiberling invented grooved tires with improved road traction• 1910 – BFGoodrich Company invented longer life tires by adding carbon to the rubber
• 1938 – Goodyear introduced the rayon cord tire
• 1940 – BFGoodrich introduced the first commercial synthetic rubber tire
• 1946 – Michelin introduced the radial tire
• 1947 – Goodyear introduced first nylon tires
• 1947 – BFGoodrich introduced the tubeless tire
• 1963 – Use ofpolyester cord introduced by Goodyear
• 1965 – Armstrong Rubber introduced the bias belted fiberglass tire
• 1965 – BFGoodrich offered the first radial available in North America
• 1967 – Poly/glass tires introduced by Firestone and Goodyear
• 1968 – United States Department of Transportation (DOT) numbers required on new tires in USA
• 1986 – BF Goodrich merged with...