Battle of the Belts

Not long ago, the nation's tire industry was traveling a bumpy road. Safety crusaders had undermined public confidence in its standard product, the so-called "bias ply" tire, and worried manufacturers began experimenting with new designs and materials. That led to one of the most rapid, jarring turnabouts in the industry's history.

Goodyear, the biggest wheel in the business, swung over to safer, more durable and costlier "bias belted" tires. The company's $20 million advertising campaign, featuring sporty cars and racy women, created a runaway demand for its belted models. In 1968 more than 93% of new cars came with the old bias-ply tires; but 85% of the 1970 models were equipped with the new belted ones.

The other major tiremakers--Firestone, Uniroyal, B.F. Goodrich and General Tire--made quick and expensive production changeovers to get in on the belted bonanza. Most of them have now regained lost ground in the market, which includes $3.8 billion a year in replacement purchases and the $700 million spent on equipping new cars. Recently several major tiremakers stepped up the competitive pace by putting out still another variety of tire, the "radial."

What are the differences among these tires? In the bias-ply tires, the rubber tread is attached to a casing made of crisscross layers of rayon or nylon (see diagram). The belted models are built the same way, but in addition they have two or more rigid belts of fiber glass encircling the tire under the tread. Helped by these extra belts, the tire grips the road better, wears up to 15% or 20% longer, is less likely to be punctured. In the radials, the casing cords run in straight lines instead of a crisscross pattern, and as many as four belts are under the tread. Advocates of radials say that they have much more, stability and wear longer than bias-belted tires.

The radials have been standard equipment in Europe for almost 15 years but make up only 4% of the U.S. market. Sales have been slowed partly because radials. most of them imports, cost an average of about $54.50 each v. an average $49.50 for the bias-belted tires. More important, because the suspension system of most Detroit cars is built for bias-ply or belted tires, the stiffer radials give a somewhat harder ride, especially at low speeds. B.F. Goodrich, which in 1965 became the first U.S. company to market radials, reports that they now account for 10% of the company's production.

Resisting Fatigue. Another battle is heating up among the companies that supply materials to the tiremakers. For casings, most manufacturers have shifted away from conventional rayon to polyester. They have also adopted fiber glass for belting because of its light weight and great strength. The big beneficiaries have been the producers of fiber glass and polyester--notably Owens Corning and PPG Industries. To compete with them, Du Pont has recently come in with a superstrong synthetic called Fiber B, but at $2 a pound it is much costlier than fiber glass, which goes for 780 a pound.

One of the most promising new belting materials is steel wire. It resists temperature and fatigue better than synthetic fibers, and at 550 a pound the price is right. Only one U.S. firm, National Standard, produces tire wire for the domestic market, and its capacity is 10 million Ibs. a year. All together, 100 million Ibs. of wire would be needed to make steel-belted tires standard equipment on all new cars.

The shortage may be ending. The American Viscose Division of FMC will start producing steel tire wire. To get the most advanced technology, American Viscose signed a licensing agreement with Pirelli, the Italian tiremaker, which has long used steel wire in its radials. Firestone has begun using steel in some of its bias-belted tires, and this year opened a plant in France to provide the necessary wire. Monsanto Co. has developed a quick and cheap process for spinning continuous strands of steel wire. The company estimates that production of the wire could reach 200 million Ibs. a year by 1975.

Need for Speed. Many tiremakers believe that a big switch to steel belts and radials is probable in five years, but they may have to move faster than that. Foreign competitors are making a major drive, and last year they increased their U.S. volume by 35%, accounting for 6,700,000 of the 170 million tires sold domestically. France's Michelin is building a radial-tire plant in Nova Scotia and intends to export almost the entire output to the U.S. market. And on the West Coast, Japan's Bridgestone has just introduced a steel-belted radial guaranteed for 40,000 miles.

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