Programme
DAY 1 / 17 NOVEMBER 2026
Registration
8:00
Session 1 - The Tire Industry Today
Theme: Top-level perspectives on current challenges & opportunities for global tire makers
9:10
KEYNOTE ADDRESS : How European Regulations will lead to changes to tyre design
Adam McCarthy, Secretary General, Tyres Europe
How European Regulations will lead to changes to tyre design
9:30
Strategies for tire makers and their suppliers
David Shaw, CEO, Tire Industry Research
This presentation looks at the changes affecting the world of tires and the different strategies adopted by different tire makers including the premium brands; the mid-range brands and some of the less well-known brands, including innovations and investments and responses to tariffs. Those strategies are affecting the upstream supply chain, so this paper also looks at how suppliers to the tire industry can adjust strategies to deal with the changes we are seeing across the world of tires.
10:00
To be confirmed
To be confirmed
Coffee break
10:30
11:00
Can high-value ELT rubber reuse deliver not only circularity, but measurable compound economics through partial virgin NR/SBR substitution?
Pavel Gorecky, Development Director, Rubreg Technologies s.r.o.
TBC
11:30
Increasing circularity, cutting carbon and capturing value from sustainable innovation
Benoit de Gaudemaris, Director of Sustainable Materials & Closed Loop Ecosystems, Bridgestone West
Customer requests are expanding – the shift to sustainable materials continues but demand for lower-carbon tyres is the latest frontier, also driven by regulatory pressures. The tyre industry needs to meet all of these challenges without compromising sustainability or profitability. Here, Bridgestone offers a perspective on the enablement strategies and partnerships needed to build new and efficient ecosystems…
12:00
PANEL DISCUSSION : Is Europe still leading the way in the development of leading-edge materials, manufacturing and sustainability technologies for the tire?
*Speakers include:
Benoit de Gaudemaris, Bridgestone West
Adam McCarthy, Tires Europe
David Shaw, Tire Industry Research
Stephan Rau, WDK
* Panel subject to change
12:45
Lunch break
Session 2 - New routes to sustainability
Theme: Leveraging innovation and collaboration to enhance the environmental profile of the global tire industry
Ralf Schwarz, Pyrum Innovations
13:30
Tyre-to-Tyre: A European Industrial Ecosystem for Tyre Circularity
Marco Marino, Circular Economy Manager at Pirelli
Closing the tyre loop takes more than recovering materials from end-of-life tyres. This project brings together Pirelli, Pyrum, BASF, and Synthos to connect four complementary technologies into one circular value chain at industrial scale. End-of-life and scrap tyres supplied by Pirelli are processed by Pyrum through pyrolysis into tyre pyrolysis oil and recovered carbon black; BASF produces ISCC PLUS certified butadiene and styrene; Synthos produces ISCC+ certified synthetic rubber; and Pirelli reintegrates these materials into new tyres. A certified mass balance approach ensures traceability across the value chain, demonstrating the practical conditions required to scale tyre-to-tyre circularity further.
14:00
Life Cycle Thinking in Tire Manufacturing: The Role of Synthetic Rubber
Christian Doering, R&D Leader Scale-up R&D, Synthos
As environmental footprint becomes an important requirement for the tire industry, reducing impacts without compromising performance, durability or safety requires a holistic view across the value chain. This presentation explores how life cycle thinking can support more sustainable tire manufacturing through material and technology decisions. The role of synthetic rubber will be illustrated through certified circular and renewable feedstocks, manufacturing improvements and value chain collaboration. Drawing on tire related LCA experience, it will also consider how the contribution of synthetic rubber can be evaluated within tire LCAs, supported by transparent and independently verified sustainability assessments. What will the audience learn How life cycle thinking can support informed material and technology decisions in tire manufacturing. How synthetic rubber contributes to tire sustainability through feedstock choices and manufacturing improvements. How tire related LCA experience can help evaluate the contribution of synthetic rubber within a tire LCA. How circular and renewable feedstocks can support efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of tire materials. Why transparent and independently verified sustainability data matters for credible value chain decision making.
14:30
Mobility framework: Connected, autonomous, smart, electrified, sustainable
Dogan Sevim, CSMO, KORDSA
TBC
Coffee break
15:00
15:30
Compliance to competitive advantage: How circular tire technologies create business value across the value-chain
Francois de Buyl, DOW CHEMICAL & Przemyslaw Zaprzalski, Recykl
Argues that sustainability is shifting from a regulatory obligation to a genuine commercial advantage in the tire industry. Uses examples from Dow's self-sealing and noise-cancelling tire technologies to show how material innovation can support both performance and circularity, and calls for closer collaboration across the value chain to scale circular tire systems.
16:00
Real Roads, Lower Impact: A Practical View on Tire Use and Circular Content
Michiel van Koeverden, Manager Regulatory Affairs, Apollo Tyres
Takes a practical view of reducing tyres' environmental footprint beyond compliance, focusing on real-world factors such as tyre pressure, alignment and lifetime management. Argues that meaningful circularity depends on responsible end-of-life collection, sorting and material logistics rather than headline recycled-content percentages, and calls for the industry to connect fragmented initiatives into shared solutions.
16:30
Unpicking the Polymer Puzzle: Reverse Engineering Polymer Composition of 551 Tyres
Nick Molden FRSC, Founder & CEO, Emissions Analytics
Describes a reverse-engineering method using pyrolysis GCxGC-MS to determine tyre polymer composition without relying on manufacturer disclosure, calibrated against known natural rubber/SBR blends. Applied to over 550 tyres sold in the EU and US, the method quantifies key anti-degradants such as 6PPD and tracks how tyre formulations are changing over time. Co-authors Ime Usen and David O'Loughlin.
17:00
PANEL DISCUSSION : Increasing the commercial returns from projects that enhance the performance, safety & sustainability of tires
*Speakers include:
Ralf Schwarz, Pyrum Innovations
Marco Marino, Pirelli
Dominique Thielmann, Synthos
Przemyslaw Zaprzalski, Recykl
* Panel subject to change
17:45
Networking drinks
DAY 2 / 18 NOVEMBER 2026
Session 1 - Tire industry of the future
Theme: Essential ingredients for a successful tire business going forward
9:00
KEYNOTE : Nexen Tire's AI-based tire development process
Jong Myung Kim, Chief Technology Officer, Nexen Tire
TBC
9:30
Integrated Research on Tire and Road Wear Particles (TRWP): From Formation Mechanisms to Environmental Analysis.
Axel Wildgrube, Manager, OE Tyre Design, Falken Tyre Europe / Sumitomo Rubber
TBC
10:00
Stripwinding: Strategy & Technology
Jan Grashuis, VP Product Management, VMI Group
The tire manufacturing industry faces growing challenges. A key to addressing these challenges lies in the tire tread: by delivering the desired premium features, it secures a differentiated competitive position. At the same time, the tire must be manufactured flexibly and cost-effectively while meeting labeling and sustainability requirements. Conventional extrusion systems are increasingly unable to accommodate advanced, high-tech rubber compounds, limiting production flexibility and slowing innovation. This presentation introduces stripwinding as a strategic and technological solution that directly addresses the limitations of the current solutions. It will explain the technology’s operational advantages and its strategic role in future-proofing tire manufacturing, while maintaining competitive per-tire costs.
Coffee break
10:30
11:00
Redefining Tire Quality Control: Lenovo Edge AI's Breakthrough in 360 Degree Full Tire Surface Inspection Solution
Wenming Yu, Director, Edge AI, Tech Incubation Lab, Lenovo Group
Presents an AI-powered inspection system for full tire surface and X-ray inspection, combining large and small models with few-shot learning to detect both known and previously unseen defects. Covers PCR and TBR tires, has been deployed with several top-10 tire manufacturers including ZC Rubber, and reports gains in defect detection, reduced scrap and consistent quality compared with manual inspection.
11:30
Accelerating value across the tire lifecycle through RFID and industry collaboration
Pierre Guinault, RFID Product Manager, Michelin
Michelin, GDSO and the journey towards an interoperable and circular tire ecosystem
12:00
PANEL DISCUSSION : THE WAY FORWARD
Targets and forecasts for the global tire industry to 2030
*Speakers include:
Jong Myung Kim, Nexen Tire
Marjolein Groeneweg, Synthos Synthetic Rubber
Wenming Yu, Edge AI, tech Incubation Lab, Lenovo Group
Francois de Buyl, Dow Chemical
Michiel van Koeverden, Apollo Tyres
* More panel experts to follow
13:00
Lunch break
Session 2 - Innovation & New Thinking Forum
14:00
The Synthetic Rubber Brain: using AI in R&D
Dr. Radosław Kozak, Head of SSBR R&D, Continuous Technology, Poland, Synthos
TBA
14:20
OxyCycle: Scaling whole tyre valorisation by oxidative devulcanisation, from recovered fractions to a circular truck retread
Richard Porter, Addible
Progress maturing Addible's OxyCycle oxidative devulcanisation process from lab proof-of-concept (around 98% material recovery from hundreds-of-gram batches) to initial 1kg-scale processing at TRL4, with recovered rubber being trialled in a re-vulcanised truck retread compound. Also introduces Tyrefinery Hub, an industry engagement initiative for partners to access OxyCycle data as it scales.
14:40
On the Road for New Opportunities Off road:
New Generation Light Weight OTR’s with Twaron p-aramid
Botond Szalma, Global Key Account Manager, Teijin Aramid
TBA
15:00
New Advances in Workflows for Transient Tire Thermal and Wear Modeling
Tom Ebbott, Managing Director, Endurica Europe SARL
In recent years, Endurica has developed many multi-physics workflows for tires and elastomers. A new capability under development extends workflows for steady-state conditions to fully transient conditions with time-based road loads in order to represent the complex loading histories typical of tires in service or on a track. Methods to predict transient temperature distributions and accumulated treadwear are described together with sample results from a passenger vehicle traversing the Nürburgring north course. Heat source terms due to the frictional energy dissipation at the tread surface are included in the heat transfer model. Predictions show the internal tire component temperatures to remain quasi-steady once the tire is warmed up, but the tread surface temperature rises and falls quickly due to slip in the corners. The workflows combine many capabilities from the Endurica software products, CL, DT, EIE and MP together with co-simulation with major FEA codes like ABAQUS.
15:20
From Empirical Abrasion Testing to Physics-Based Tire Wear Prediction Using Thomas Diagram Parameters for Future Tire Development
Radek Stoček Assoc. Prof., Centre of Polymer Systems (CPS), Tomas Bata University
Proposes the fracture-mechanics-based Thomas diagram as a physics-based alternative to empirical abrasion testing, linking crack growth parameters to real-world wear and cut-and-chip performance. Argues this gives transferable material parameters for predictive wear simulation and compound development, supporting future regulation such as Euro 7. Co-authors Martin Stenicka, Marek Poschl, Gert Heinrich. Submitted after the deadline, with a request for the committee to still consider it.
15:40
Recovered carbon black and tire pyrolysis oil: What tire makers Should expect next
Robert Weibold, Founder and Managing Director, Robert Weibold GmbH
Gives a market readout on recovered carbon black (rCB) and tire pyrolysis oil (TPO), covering production volumes and regional developments, with a focus on Europe. Discusses the standardisation, certification and pricing hurdles that will determine whether rCB can move from pilot projects into mainstream tire use.