Do you know what is used to make modern tyres and how they are made and why should they instead be called a rubber sandwich?

Modern tyres are more hard wearing than ever before. Yet, we as a consumer expect even more. We want our tyres to cushion the ride of our vehicles, grip the roads, increase fuel economy and still be able to withstand the rigours of todays roads.

What is used to make a tyre?

Did you know that anything up to two hundred individual raw ingredients can be used to make what we know today as a modern tyre.

Your tyre is not simply one solid piece of rubber instead it is lots of different layers sandwiched together. Just below what we think of as the tyre that is to say the rubber outer shell of tread there is polyester cords which are not only re-enforced with steel but are then surrounded in another layer of rubber. There are then layers of both synthetic and hard rubber as well as special steel wires which each alone are capable of bearing up to one thousand eight hundred kilogrammes in weight.

The exact ratio of textile, natural and synthetic rubbers are a closely guarded secret which each manufacture modifies depending on the type of tyre they are making and the type of usage.

For example, Formula One racing cars are fitted with tyres which are made with a rubber compound designed to be able to grip the road at high speed.

The downside is that they wear out very quickly and would therefore not be the most suitable tyre or everyday road usage. 

So how are tyres made, the answer is simple by compressing different grades and compounds of rubber, steel and textiles together.