Tire Made of 10% Soybean Oil Unveiled at Farm Progress Show 2012

Aug 31, 2012

Bridgestone America Firestone Brings Innovation To Farm Tires

Bridgestone Americas unveiled a new product at the 2012 Farm Progress show in Boone, Iowa this week – a tire that contains 10% soybean oil. The soybean tire is part of the Firestone brand of agricultural tires. The tire is for farm use, weighs 900 pounds and is made up of 90 pounds soy oil. This is a special year for the Harvey Firestone’s tire line celebrating their 80th anniversary and staying true to their heritage – improving tire technology and innovation for farm use.

“The soybean oil has replaced all the different petroleum-based processing oils used in the tire’s compounds,” said Tom Rodgers, director of sales & marketing at Bridgestone Americas. “Engineers and compounders from our Americas Technology Center, and also the company’s Des Moines agricultural tire plant, have been working on this concept tire project for several months. Based on the progress of the project, we expect to begin incorporating soy oil into some of our agricultural tires by early 2013. Our goal is to have soy oil as a component in all of our agriculture tires by the end of 2013.”

It takes approximately one bushel of soybeans to produce 11 pounds of soy oil. The tire shown below, used eight bushels of soybeans to make 90 pounds of soy oil.

Video: The All-New Kubota SVL110-3 in Action

Break New Grounds: Make short work of rugged bush, uneven ground, or a challenging job site. The new Kubota SVL110-3 is faster, stronger, and tougher than ever before thanks to increased horsepower and high-performance attachment capability. Key new features: Increased performance: It’s not just a new model. The SVL110-3 is equipped with a range of innovative new features that are designed to increase performance while maintaining operator ease and comfort. Easy maintenance and cleanouts: Save time and effort when doing maintenance: the cab can be tilted 72° without having to lift the arm, allowing easy access to the hydraulic pumps, valves, lines and hydraulic tank. The SVL110-3 has three clean outs on the bottom of the chassis and one on each side to clean out material from the loader arms area.