Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s innovative OTR tire technology, its Two-Piece Assembly, won Construction Equipment magazine’s Top 100 award for 2003.
The product will appear in the magazine's December issue as part of a feature highlighting each of the selected winners.
Like the name suggests, the Two-Piece Assembly consists of two separate but vital pieces -- a casing and a tread belt package. The two pieces have corresponding grooves that interlock during assembly. Once assembled, the two pieces are held together by the air pressure in the inflated assembly.
The Two-Piece Assembly's revolutionary design addresses a number of performance issues for large haul truck operators, such as cost per pound and tons hauled; speed; product flexibility; traction, handling and
stability; ability to measure operational cost; and operator comfort, says Goodyear.
"Construction Equipment’s Top 100 Products award program calls special attention to the most significant products introduced each year," says Tom Walker, general manger for Goodyear's global off-the-road products. "I think it says a lot about how revolutionary the Two Piece Assembly is when it earns an award as prestigious as this."
While evaluating products for the Top 100 Awards, Construction Equipment editors looked for advances in technology, new product lines, significant improvements to existing products or a product that increases competition in its field.
In the letter notifying Goodyear of winning the award, Construction Equipment Editor Rod Sutton stated, "We considered more than 700 product introductions in the process that led us to your product. And I should stress that our editors made these selections independently, drawing upon input from readers and our own experience with equipment technology and the equipment marketplace."
"The Two-Piece Assembly has received a lot of praise in the trade press, but it is also receiving praise from our customers in the field," says Walker. "We are really just in the infancy of this totally new concept. As with any new product, we will continue to learn and make it even better."
