Two Kumho brand tires have received the International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) for 2016 in the automotive and transportation category.
Kumho TIre U.S.A. Inc. announced that its winning entries for this year’s IDEA are the Smasher, a future-oriented concept tire, and the Sealant Tire with self-sealing features which is currently on the market.
The Smasher was designed in collaboration with Ssangyong Motor. The tire is optimized for driving in extreme road conditions with features such as suction plates and grinder-shaped tire treads, according to Kumho. The suction plates of the tire enable the vehicle to climb steep slopes by creating a vacuum state when the tire grabs the ground while the grinder structure embedded in the tread block allows for safe driving in any road conditions including rough roads by crushing uneven portions of the road that may damage the tire.
The Sealant tire, also known as the “self-sealing” tire, prevents the air inside the tire from leaking out by automatically sealing the damaged part when debris penetrates the tire tread.
The IDEA design competition is co-sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and Business Week magazine.
With the world’s top three design awards under its belt now – the Red Dot Award and the International Forum Design of Germany, and the IDEA Award of the United States – Kumho has its design and technological capabilities recognized by the industry as a whole.
In 2015, Kumho received the Red Dot Award of Germany and the Good Design Award of Japan and the Good Design of Korea.
“With the winning of the IDEA Award this year, we now have all of the top three international design awards under our belt,” says Chung Taek-Gyun, executive vice president at and head of Kumho's R&D division, “We will continue to build our capabilities in all areas of tire technology including design in order to open a new chapter in the global tire industry.”
In June 2016, Kumho won two prizes at the Green Good Design Award 2016 held in the United States. The winners were the ‘Eco Sense SE 11’ and the ‘Wattrun VS31’ - tires designed for environment-friendly and electric vehicles in Japan and North America, respectively. Kumho also won the Greed Good Design Award, which honors environment-friendly design concepts, in 2015.
For more information about Kumho and its products, visit www.KumhoTireUSA.com.
