Black Donuts Opens InTire Labs for Sustainable Tire Material Innovation
Black Donuts is set to officially open InTire Labs, a state-of-the-art, fully independent Material Research Center in Tampere, Finland, on July 16, 2025. Developed as a neutral, confidential R&D hub, the lab drives innovation in sustainable tire and rubber materials, including bio‑based and recycled compounds, supported by NextGenerationEU funding.
Black Donuts has launched InTire Labs, a material research center dedicated to researching, analyzing, and testing sustainable bio-based materials for tire manufacturing.
The company states that its core mission is to accelerate the transition from fossil-based raw materials in rubber compounds to more environmentally friendly, biobased, renewable, and recyclable raw materials.
The primary research goal is to reduce fossil-derived microplastic emissions from tire wear by replacing tread rubber raw materials with more biodegradable options.
Equipped with modern pilot-scale mixing and curing machinery, Mooney viscometers, aging and thermal analysis chambers, and testing technologies, InTire Labs supports the full lifecycle — from early compound formulation to performance validation.
In addition to developing new materials, the lab is concentrating on advancing intelligent manufacturing through researching the integration of smart sensors into rubber products, innovative MES systems for digitalized and optimized R&D processes, remote monitoring of energy use and equipment performance, and traceability and recycling strategies to support circular economies.
The company is also exploring pyrolysis and post-treatment methods to produce high-quality recycled materials locally and collect material parameters to build digital material models for simulating tire performance.
In related news, Michelin has announced the construction of an initial industrial demonstration unit for producing the 5-HMF molecule. This bio-sourced and non-toxic molecule can replace ingredients derived from fossil fuels in a wide variety of industrial fields.
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With the launch of InTire Labs, Black Donuts is redefining rubber R&D Are you ready to do the same?
Whether you’re an OEM, materials scientist, or recycler, Klean Industries helps you turn recovered tire inputs into performance-driven, sustainable products.
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