Hankook Tire Co. Ltd. focused on smart mobility tire concepts and electric vehicle technology at its annual Design Insight Forum at the Hankook Technodome.
Hankook also unveiled the best cutting-edge design concepts of its Design Innovation program at the forum, which was held on Dec. 8, 2016.
The Design Insight Forum has been held every year since 2004 under the theme of future driving environment. This year, the forum covered tire-centered smart mobility in the future mega cities under the theme of ‘Connect to the Connected World,” and the latest auto-tech trend in automotive market and tire technology for future electric vehicles.
Design Innovation, which has been held three times since 2012, is Hankook Tire’s sponsor program collaborating with university students. This year, the program was held in collaboration with senior industrial design students in University of Cincinnati to suggest mobility in the future mega cities in the forms of self-driving and connected cars, and car-sharing.
The winning works resulted in numerous patents as well as awards at world’s leading design awards, including IDEA, IF awards and Red Dot Design Awards. Last year, Innovative Boostrac Concept Tire, which was a part of Design Innovation 2014 project, won a Luminary of Red Dot Award.
A total of 34 works were submitted as the result of Design Innovation 2016. Five works were selected to be exhibited in mockups and animation at Hankook Technodome. The works and a description follow.
- Flexup: moving freely even in stairs.
- Magfloat: driving with flexible wheel by using magnetic field.
- Autobine:adding the tires with expandable bus body depending on the number of passengers.
- Shiftrac: powerful cornering by using skating principle.
- i-Play: maximizing cornering performance.
Seung Hwa Suh, vice chairman and CEO of Hankook Tire said the Desin Insight Forum is meaningful because ““one can witness fine works of young designers of the future tire innovation at the new and state-of-the art R&D center, Hankook Technodome.”
Hankook says it is the first tire company to win the three major international design awards for its innovative product design. The continuous recognition by world’s renowned design awards highlights Hankook global top tier technology leadership as well as design innovation, according to the company.
For details on the new R&D center, see Senior Editor Joy Kopcha's story, "Hankook's New Technodome: The Future of R&D Is Now."
