2018 International Forest Industries IFI Aug Sept 2018 Digital | Page 14

LOGGING & BIOMASS NEWS
Michelin Tires to incorporate elastomers from wood chips
Wooden tires don’t have the best
ring to them, but Michelin firmly
believes they’ll be a reality in 2020.
The French tire maker told
Motoring in a report published this
month of its plans to introduce
wood into tires, and it’s all about
moving away from oil.
Cyrille Roget, Michelin’s
worldwide director of scientific
and innovation communication,
said the plan is to create more
sustainable tires in the future, and
experiments with wood waste have
provided a solution.
The tire maker will incorporate
elastomers from wood chips to
replace a tire’s oil content. Today,
80 percent of materials found
in tires come from oil. In the
future, that percentage will drop
to 20 percent by 2048, Michelin
believes. And rubber will also be
included, which Roget said is also
sustainable.
“Trees grow everywhere. So you
re-distribute the opportunity for
everyone to have local sourcing.
And they are renewable,” Roget
added.
Much further into the future,
Michelin not only foresees tires
made from wood, but also a single
set of tires for a car’s lifetime. The
company believes one day that
3D printing will revolutionize the
tire process. Where today drivers
must physically change tires after
the tread wears down, 3D printers
could conceivably “recharge”
tread. In layman terms, a 3D printer
would print new tread when the
tread eroded to an unsafe level.
Roget even pictured a day when an
electric car charging station also
includes a 3D printer to “recharge”
tire tread.
3D-printed tires are further
down the line, perhaps 15 years at
minimum, Roget said, but Michelin
hopes to show its first tire made
from wood in less than two years.
Epec Oy’s managing director will change
Teemu Raitis, the managing
director of Epec Oy, will resign from
the company’s service by the end
of this year. Raitis has acted as
Epec Oy’s managing director since
2016.
Epec Oy has already started
looking for a new managing
director and will provide more
information on the appointment in
the autumn.
Ponsse wishes to thank Teemu
Raitis for his contributions to the
company.
Epec Oy is Ponsse Group’s
subsidiary located in Seinäjoki,
Finland. It designs and
manufactures control systems
for mobile work machines,
electronics and software for
demanding conditions. Epec Oy
was founded in 1978, and it has
been the manufacturer of PONSSE
information system products since
2004.
Full throttle
Logger Wayne Sugg, owner of
Sugg & Sugg Logging, works hard
— and plays hard. When he’s not
harvesting pine, he likes to race his
motorcycle at drag strips near his
home in Ellerbe, North Carolina.
12 International Forest Industries | AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2018
Beginning when he was 16
years old, Sugg would drag race
almost every weekend from March
to November. “That has always
been my thing to do after work
— racing motorcycles or building
race motors. I’m not as active as I
once was, but I really enjoy having
a good time on weekends with my
family and friends.”
Sugg competes in “grudge
races,” an exciting, no-holds-
barred form of drag racing where
bike setups are kept secret and
scores are settled.
Similar in feel to street drag
racing, these legally sanctioned
events are regularly scheduled
at many local drag strips. Sugg
typically races against five to ten
other competitors, vying for purses
ranging from $5,000 to $10,000.
He’s won six events over the years.
Sugg keeps some pretty fast
company. His 1400-cc nitrous-
equipped bike competes against
motorcycles that run the quarter
mile in seven or eight seconds,
topping out at about 190 miles per
hour.
To put that in perspective,
today’s fastest production bikes do
a quarter mile in over nine seconds,
with a top speed of 150 miles per
hour. He feels the need for speed!