Continental and Security Matters (SMX), a company focused on the digitization of physical objects in the blockchain, are collaborating to develop and test a natural rubber marker technology. In order to accomplish this, the two companies recently signed a collaboration agreement. The project partners' special marker technology, which has been further developed for use in natural rubber, is expected to contribute to even greater transparency and traceability along the entire value chain of Continental tyres and technical rubber products in the future.
Provided with special safety features, the employment of marker substances permits the invisible labelling of natural rubber with info on its actual geographical origin. With the help of special reading devices and specially developed technology, the data on the natural rubber will browse out and its origin will be exactly assigned at any time. As a part of the industrialisation of this technology, it might even be conceivable for the marker technology to be connected to blockchain technology, which is understood to be notably forgery-proof.
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"We are testing this marker technology to ensure in the future that the natural rubber we use in our tires has been verifiably grown and sourced in a fully sustainable manner," says Claus Petschick, Head of Sustainability at Continental's Tires business area. He adds, "We aim to procure all our materials from responsible sources. Innovative technologies and digitalization make an important contribution to this." Thus, by 2050 at the latest, all materials used by Continental in its worldwide tire production are to be sourced responsibly.
The two project partners' extensive laboratory tests were successful. Different marker substances, for example, have been detected in both natural rubber latex ("Rubber tree to rubber bale test section") and processed and vulcanised natural rubber of the tyre ("Rubber bale to tyre test section"), and thus throughout the entire manufacturing process, without affecting the end product's appearance or performance.
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Continental and Security Matters are now working on utilizing the new marker technology to be used on a larger scale during the process of rubber extraction. "Our collaboration shows that physical and digital tracking can be ensured through unique and immutable chemical-based barcodes in rubber products as well," says Haggai Alon, founder, and CEO of Security Matters. He adds, "Together with Continental, we now want to use our marker technology to further improve the transparency of the natural rubber supply chain."
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