In a report by Tire Business, Cooper Tire & Rubber Co., Federal Corp., Group Michelin and Nexen Tire Corp were presented with “Good Design” awards for their “cutting-edge” design by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design.
Four Tyre Manufacturers Receive ‘Good Design’ Awards
The Chicago museum collaborates with the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies in order to select the winners. The “Good Design” award intends to recognize the most innovative and cutting-edge industrial, product and graphic designs produced around the globe. Products are judged on several criteria. These criteria cover innovative design, new technologies, form, materials, construction, concept, function, utility, energy efficiency and sensitivity to the environment.
Cooper’s winning designs are the Cooper Evolution H/T, an all-season highway tyre for the U.S. market, and the Mastercraft Courser Sport 100, an ultra-high performance (UHP) tyre for the Asian market, marking the fifth straight year a Copper product has got its hands on the award.
According to Tire Business, Chuck Yurkovich, the company’s senior vice president of global research & development, described the award a “testament to Cooper’s global design excellence.”
Federal’s winning entry was the Himalaya Kattura winter tyre, which features “ice-bite” design elements inspired by ice axes that dig into snow for optimal stopping power and claw-shaped grooves for traction on ice.
Michelin earned its Good Design award for the Pilot Sport 4S UHP, which in an article by Tire Business the company said uses silica/functional elastomer tread compounds that yield “exceptional” steering precision and directional stability with enhanced grip on wet or dry roads.
Nexen’s winning design is the N’Fera AU7 all-season UHP premium passenger tire that features design elements that reduce the tire’s noise footprint to make it more compatible with a growing range of electric vehicles.
