Tire’s Time: Bridgestone Corporation Factory Study Tour

At November 10th 2009 we finally went to the second Factory Study Tour’s place; tires company. I think I was so lucky being there, one of the largest tires companies in the world which is Bridgestone Corporation. It was quite far from O-okayama Campus; it took almost one and a half hour journey to Kodaira City. We arrived there about 15.45 and were guided to some kind of big conference room. In the room were given information about company’s profile and how to make a tire. After that we were divided into two big groups. There were two main locations that we would visit: the factory and museum.

My group was accompanied to go to the factory first. We traced there like steps to make tire. First we saw a glance about mixing process and tread extruding process, then cord, steel belt, and bead manufacturing process. These things (tread, cord, steel belt, and bead) are components of tire. They were produced and cut by automatic machine while stratified arranged become “green tire” (immature tire) by half-automatic system (used human being’s work to arrange them then passed fixation process by special machinery). The final stage is vulcanizing process, to create tire’s shape by applying high heat and pressure. The last part is inspection process (including quality control), but we did not see the process. The size of those machineries depends on tires they want to make (they are proportionally equal). That was an interesting experience for me, but unfortunately in my opinion the factory lacks on several safety procedures. They do not use a gas mask for protecting their workers and visitors from gas pollution. They use natural or synthetic rubber, carbon black, sulfur, nylon, polyester, etc and apply heat to mix and make shape of them to make tire. It means there is a big possibility that some of those components evaporate become poisonous gas (hydrocarbon, carbon, sulfur, etc). I felt no so comfortable with those smell actually.

The most interesting part was the next session; the museum! It was awesome when I saw real Formula One (it was Felipe Massa’s one) car at powerful motor sports corner. It was in the first floor. Not only the car, I also saw types, roles of tires, and materials, tire, and pattern sciences in that floor. In up stair, we were showed about tire research development, testing evaluation, and manufacturing process. It was nice also watched display of the biggest tires in the world there. Bridgestone has a commitment that they have to develop a great technology of making great tire, because tire grip to the road only with the size of a postcard; it must have a great shape, texture, and applied technology to accommodate a smooth riding. The last floor we visited was basement. In that basement, seismic isolation rubber bearing visit room, I knew that ace rubber was used as a component of building foundation especially in Japan to decrease earthquake effect to the building. It can absorb earthquake vibration by its elastic strength.

After these sections, we were collected again in the conference room then had discussion section and took a picture together. Finally we went home around 17.00. It was rather sad that we could not take a picture there, so I do not have a picture at all there. But overall the tour was great though.

For more information, you can go to http://www.bridgestone.co.jp/ (but all contents are in Japanese =p hehehe…).

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