Fibers & Textiles Company
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i
June, 1982
Gastonia, North Carolina
Bennettsville, South Carolina • Bowling Green, Kentucky • Hopewell, Virginia
lane
Lynn,
respooler
operator
inTC
Twisting,
with the
fibers/
. textiles
display.
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Tire Reinforcements On Display | Did You?
‘Tire reinforcements developed
by Firestone” is theme of a display
in the Gastonia plant main en
trance, in place since April. The 8 x
10 foot f>anel was produced in
Akron and exhibited several mon
ths in the corporate headquarters.
D.N. Lewis, manager of Gastonia
Process & Product Development,
arranged to bring the display to
Gastonia, where it will remain in
definitely.
Energy And Tires
It takes 20 percent less energy through use of oil to make a typical steel-
belted radial tire today than what was needed to do the same thing in 1976.
Firestone engineers who develop tires say it takes 10 gallons of oil today
to make the average-size P 185/75R14 steel-tjelted radial passenger-car tire.
It took 12*/2 gallons to make an FR78-14 radial 6 years ago.
The company attributes the cut in energy use to the automotive
downsizing requirements in recent years: to continuing efforts of the tire
companies to reduce use of oil-derived materials and to consume less
energy in manufacturing processes.
Oil is needed to make raw materials for tire components such as fibers,
synthetic rubber, carbon black and chemicals. Oil is also the main energy
source for suppliers who make the products furnished to tire plants, and the
energy which tire plants use to put the materials together in building the
tires.
•Comparative reducation of oil usage to make typical steel-belted radial
passengerar-tires, 1976-1981:
Steel Wire
Tire Cord
Carbon Black
Rubber
Chemicals, Oil
Energy to Make Tire
Total Oil Usage
1976
2 qts. for 3 lbs.
3 qts. for 1 lb.
2Vi gals, for 7'A lbs.
4/2 gals, for 14‘/2 lbs.
3 qts. for 4 Vi lbs.
3'/2 gals.
12‘/2 gals.
1981
1 '/2 qts. for 2 Vi lbs.
2K2 qts. for Vi lb.
2 gals, for 6 lbs.
3 Vi gals, for 11 Vi lbs.
2 qts. for 3 Vi lbs.
3 gals.
10 gals.
Firestone 721 Metrix
Employee Ownership Plan
All active and retired employees
of the Firestone Fibers and Tex
tiles Company are eligible to par
ticipate in a Firestone 721 Metrix
Employee Ownership Plan.
Through July 31,1982, employees
receiving certificates may purchase
one (1) set of four or five 721
Metrix tires for their personal use.
The tires are to be balanced and
mounted with new valves by the
delivering store. The certificate will
show the employee’s name and
social security number.
Conditions under which
employees may purchase these
tires are stated on the certificate,
and must be followed.
If you purchase tires under the
ownership plan, you are entitled to
the $10.00 per tire rebate. Just br
ing your sales slip to the personnel
office so it can be processed.
Firestone Continues
To Supply Films
For the 9th consecutive year.
Firestone’s Gastonia plant has sup
plied monthly educational films
during the school year to area
junior/Senior public and private
high schools.
Films during the year just ended
dealt with robotics, new
developments in medicine, the
Federal Reserve System, China,
presidential power and com
munication, drought and world
hunger, and the information
revolution.
“We’re glad to have brought
another year of these instructional
films to the local schools, and we
hope they gave students a wider
view of the world and help them in
their studies,” said Ronald E. No
ble, Fibers/Textiles division presi
dent.
Each year the films-when not in
use by schools-may be borrowed
from the local school system for
showing to community groups.
The new (1982-83) series will begin
in September.
Did you have to do someone
else’s work today? Did someone
have to do yours? Or did it simply
go undone? When a person takes
an unexcused day off, he or she:
•Cuts down on 'productivity,
thus creating extra costs of opera
tion and causing other losses to
employee and company.
•Threatens job security in dif
ferent ways. One of these: Causing
the company to be at an unfair ad
vantage in competition with other
manufacturers of the same pro
ducts.
New Suspension
System Product
Of Firestone
A new type of suspension system
that promises to improve the ride
of small cars, vans and light trucks,
is a Firestone development. The
suspension is a rub^r spring which
Firestone engineer Gerald L.
Marsh invented. Because it pro
vides a smooth, comfortable ride
no matter what the load condi
tions, the company named the spr
ing the “Marsh Mellow.”
The variable-rate spring is a
black, rubber cylinder with a
hollow center. The core of the spr
ing is solid rubber wrapped with
and bonded to multiple plies of
nylon tire cord.
The nylon fabric is being pro
duced at the Gastonio plant,
treated at Bowling Green ond
shipped to Noblesville for
building into the Marsh
Mellow.
Like bias-ply construction, the
cord is placed in bias angles to pro
duce specific ride characteristics. A
bonded cover layer of abrasion and
weather-resistant rubber protects
the cords.
Sixty Two Years
Ago-Process Began
•More than 62 years ago the Firestone company perfected a method of in
sulating tire cords against internal heat build-up of rolling tires. It was call
ed a “Gum-Dipping” process. In the 1920s and into the 1930s, the cord was
cotton-the “upland” kind considered of highest quality.
The technique and method of insulating tire cord and fabric has evolved
into what we know today as “treating”; occasionally by an older term
“plastic-dipping.”
Since the mid-1950s, the operation has been done in electronically-
controlled, heat-setting equipment. Firestone was a pioneer in treating, a
great advance in the tire industry.
Fabric-treating not only insulates against heat in tire use, but imparts
other qualities to tires. It improves strength, controls stretch, adds flexibili
ty, helps toward smoother travel and easier driving.
Firestone and its Gastonia plant was the “world’s first” when the original
electronically-operated, gas-fired “dip” unit began service in 1955. In ensu
ing years, two more units went into service at the same location. Newest is
No. 8 unit on the site of the old open pond of “years ago.” Firestone also
has fabric-treating facilities at Bowling Green, Ky. (2 units), at Hamilton,
Ontario, Canada; and others outside North America.
Use And
Service
Use and service usually bring
wear and tear-a fact to be
reckoned with in so many areas
of life. An example-auto tires.
In their manufacture, the best
materials and finest workman
ship are basic ingredients
toward a tire’s good perfor
mance, safety and extended ser
vice. It’s all in the customer’s
“money’s worth.”
But a tire’s extended life and
safe, satisfactory performance
rest greatly upon sensible care.
One good practice: Frequent,
careful inspection, mctintenance
and tire rotation, especially
with radials.
Firestone tires engineers say
that uneven tread wear could be
caused by ohe or more of
several things, such as amount
of air in the tires, condition of
the vehicle’s brakes and shock
absorbers, wheel alignment and
vehicle load.