News › JENOPTIK • New tech­no­logy launch with 4JET

Laser pro­ces­sing revo­lu­tio­ni­zes pro­to­type pro­duc­tion of car tires: Jenoptik’s Light & Pro­duc­tion Divi­sion announ­ces coope­ra­tion with the 4JET Group to jointly drive the com­mer­cia­liza­tion of inno­va­tive laser pro­to­ty­p­ing technology.

The tech­no­logy enables rapid pro­to­ty­p­ing of vehicle tires through pre­cise laser mate­rial pro­ces­sing. In this pro­cess, indi­vi­dual pro­files and designs are laser-gene­ra­ted into tires with a smooth tread and neu­tral side­wall. The pro­cess replaces the time-con­sum­ing manual car­ving of tires and thus signi­fi­cantly redu­ces deve­lo­p­ment cycles and pro­to­ty­p­ing costs in tire development.

The laser abla­tion tech­no­logy deve­lo­ped by Jen­op­tik ans­wers a key trend in the tire indus­try. With an incre­asing pro­duct diver­sity and shorter pro­duct deve­lo­p­ment cycles, the pro­duc­tion of design samples and pre-pro­duc­tion tires is essen­tial. The pro­duc­tion of dedi­ca­ted molds by CNC mil­ling or 3D prin­ting usually takes place at a later stage of deve­lo­p­ment. The­r­e­fore, for uni­que pro­ducts in the early deve­lo­p­ment phase, func­tional samples are often pro­du­ced in quan­ti­ties below 5. Howe­ver, car­ving with hot kni­ves is a cost-inten­sive and time-con­sum­ing manual pro­cess with tech­ni­cal limits.

The new pro­to­ty­p­ing machi­nes from 4JET with inte­gra­ted Jen­SCAN® Tire tech­no­logy from Jen­op­tik allow both treads and side­walls to be machi­ned true to size and almost fully auto­ma­ti­cally from CAD data. Pul­sed laser pro­ces­sing remo­ves mate­rial pre­cis­ely and with mini­mal heat impact on the tire. Both non-cont­act pro­ces­sing and powerful extra­c­tion require no post-pro­ces­sing. The novel laser machi­nes can pro­duce seve­ral hundred pro­to­ty­pes per year, mee­ting the gro­wing needs of typi­cal tire manu­fac­tu­r­ers’ deve­lo­p­ment cen­ters. Optio­nal upgrades allow pro­to­ty­pes to be marked with QR codes or other track­ing infor­ma­tion. In a fur­ther expan­sion stage, the sys­tem can be sup­ple­men­ted with optics for laser-indu­ced »shark skins«.

The col­la­bo­ra­tion bet­ween the two com­pa­nies includes world­wide mar­ke­ting of the tech­no­logy through the 4JET Group’s glo­bal sales orga­niza­tion. This does not affect Jenoptik’s exis­ting cus­to­mers, who will con­ti­nue to be ser­ved by their fami­liar contacts.

Flo­rian Schrei­ber, Vice Pre­si­dent Sales for Tire Machi­nes at 4JET Group, comm­ents: »Jenoptik’s tech­no­logy is the per­fect com­ple­ment to our port­fo­lio for laser-based tire manu­fac­tu­ring sys­tems. As a sup­plier to almost all lea­ding tire manu­fac­tu­r­ers, we can make this tech­no­logy available world­wide and sup­port it through our regio­nal sales and ser­vice structures.«

»We are glad to have a strong part­ner at our side. Through this coope­ra­tion, Jen­op­tik gains access to key cont­acts and decis­ion makers in the tire indus­try through 4JET’s exis­ting net­work. In par­ti­cu­lar, we are invol­ved in pro­to­type pro­duc­tion for the pre-deve­lo­p­ment of future tires, where, for exam­ple, the deve­lo­p­ment pro­cess for CO2 reduc­tion and rol­ling resis­tance reduc­tion as well as other para­me­ters can be signi­fi­cantly acce­le­ra­ted. This part­ner­ship is a win-win situa­tion for both our com­pa­nies and com­ple­ments 4JET’s range of laser appli­ca­ti­ons«, said Julio Javier Frank, Vice Pre­si­dent Sales at Jenoptik’s Light & Pro­duc­tion division.

About 4JET

The Als­dorf-based 4JET Group deli­vers solu­ti­ons for the sur­face tech­no­logy of the future. The com­pany was foun­ded in 2006 and sup­plies all of the world’s lea­ding tire manu­fac­tu­r­ers with solu­ti­ons for tire mar­king, mold clea­ning and bon­ding pre­pa­ra­tion, Cus­to­mers also include major OEMs and other auto­mo­tive sup­pli­ers. The 4JET micro­tech busi­ness unit sup­plies laser micro­ma­chi­ning sys­tems for pro­ces­sing tech­ni­cal glass, solar cells and other high-tech com­pon­ents. Since August 2018, the com­pany has been ope­ra­ting a job­shop for laser con­tract pro­ces­sing in Prut­ting near Rosen­heim. Sub­si­dia­ries in Shang­hai and Atlanta pro­vide sales con­sul­ting and tech­ni­cal ser­vices to inter­na­tio­nal customers.
For more infor­ma­tion, visit ww.4jet.de.

About Jen­op­tik and the Light & Pro­duc­tion division

Opti­cal tech­no­lo­gies are the very basis of our busi­ness: Jen­op­tik is a glo­bally active tech­no­logy group and is active in the three pho­to­nics-based divi­si­ons: Light & Optics, Light & Pro­duc­tion and Light & Safety. Our key tar­get mar­kets pri­ma­rily include the semi­con­duc­tor indus­try, medi­cal tech­no­logy, auto­mo­tive and mecha­ni­cal engi­nee­ring, traf­fic, avia­tion as well as secu­rity and defense tech­no­logy indus­tries. Around 4,400 employees work for Jen­op­tik world­wide. The Group’s head­quar­ters are in Jena (Ger­many). In the 2020 fis­cal year, Jen­op­tik gene­ra­ted reve­nue of approx. 767 mil­lion euros accor­ding to preli­mi­nary figures.

Jenoptik’s Light & Pro­duc­tion divi­sion is a glo­bal spe­cia­list in the opti­miza­tion of manu­fac­tu­ring pro­ces­ses. With many years of expe­ri­ence and exper­tise in indus­trial metro­logy and opti­cal inspec­tion, advan­ced laser-based mate­rial pro­ces­sing and highly fle­xi­ble robot-based auto­ma­tion, the com­pany deve­lops cus­to­mi­zed manu­fac­tu­ring solu­ti­ons for cus­to­mers in the auto­mo­tive, aero­space, medi­cal tech­no­logy and other manu­fac­tu­ring indus­tries. In the glo­bal auto­mo­tive mar­ket, Jen­op­tik, as a firmly estab­lished key sup­plier, meets modern chal­lenges on a daily basis in terms of fle­xi­bi­lity, pro­duc­ti­vity and incre­asing diver­sity of vari­ants, thus cove­ring the gro­wing demand for com­plex and turn­key indus­trial solu­ti­ons with a focus on machine inte­gra­tion and pro­cess auto­ma­tion. As a deve­lo­p­ment and opti­miza­tion part­ner, Jen­op­tik faces up to mar­ket-spe­ci­fic chal­lenges tog­e­ther with its cus­to­mers and rai­ses cus­to­mer-spe­ci­fic sys­tems to a new, for­ward-loo­king level by intel­li­gently com­bi­ning key technologies.

Cont­act

Clau­dia Barnert
JENOPTIK | Light & Production
Head of Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons & Marketing
+49 3641 65–4652
moc.kitponej@trenrab.aidualc

Elke Blome
4JET Tech­no­lo­gies GmbH
Marketing
+49 2404 9221–0
ed.tej4@emolb.ekle