Ahead of rCB 2022 we spoke to Chris Norris, General Manager at Artis. We asked for his thoughts on his presentation, any challenges and opportunities within the market and what he is most looking forward to.

Your presentation will address the performance potential of rCB in real-life applications. Can you give us a snapshot of what delegates will hear?

The presentation will show how a fully optimised rCB can not only replace virgin carbon black but also offer some performance advantages in a tyre application. In this case, the rCB is used to either reduce weight or cost of the compound. In addition, the potential to use three different rCB products of similar specification in a high-volume automotive application will be discussed and a performance advantage highlighted. The spread in properties of the three rCB products from different suppliers is also compared to N550 from three different suppliers.

What do you see as the major challenges and opportunities for RCB? How might that change in near-mid future – anything evolutionary / revolutionary on the horizon?

From a manufacturer’s perspective, reliable supply of high quality rCB remains the biggest challenge, you cannot use what is not there! There are a large number of projects at various stages of maturity which should change the landscape of rCB availability over the coming years, which can only help. It is still a ‘chicken and egg’ situation though as rCB users are reluctant to fully validate material unless it is from a commercial-scale production facility, whilst many projects are relying on commitment from rCB users to secure the necessary funding to be able to install commercial-scale processes. Fundamentally, I believe that overcoming the above issues is key to progression of the rCB industry rather than the need for something evolutionary or revolutionary.

What are you most looking forward to hearing about and discussing with your peers at this year’s Conference?

Mostly, I am looking forward to seeing everybody in person again and to learn of the progress made since the last conference.