Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. announced that its concept tire eMembrane, produced in collaboration with University of Cincinnati, was rewarded the Winner Label from the Red Dot Award 2013 for concept design.
Hankook Tire says its eMembrane represents a solid result of the company’s continued efforts and investment in developing forward-looking tire designs and concepts. With its eco-friendly as well as state-of-the-art dynamic features installed, eMembrane demonstrates the new innovative tire concept and applies distinguished performance features that reflect imaginable future driving environment.
Award-winning eMembrane, designed in Smart-Hybrid concept, is a multi-use tire for both performance and regular city driving. Mainly targeted at young drivers, so-called Generation Y, characterized as adventurous, unique and highly prone to leisure activities, one particular distinguished feature of eMembrane is its capability of transforming tire profile through internal structure changes in accordance with different driving conditions. As such, eMembrane can implement contrasting roles of both being ‘eco-friendly’ and driving with ‘dynamic’ performance.
EMembrane’s tread design also adds to its innovativeness. For instance, when driving at high-speeds, the tire’s tread center extends to generate maximum ground friction through wider ground contact area, which maximizes grip power to execute dynamic cornering and performance driving.
On the other hand, when driving at low-speeds, the tread is designed to produce minimal road contact area and ground friction, whereby the tire’s fuel efficiency is enhanced by reducing rolling resistance. Furthermore, in order to make it easier to signal the changes in eMembrane’s driving modes, an LED system is equipped in the tire’s sidewall for operation alarm.
