Tyres With Very Low Rolling Noise From Continental

Continental has announced that it is currently developing tyres with exceptionally low rolling noise to help reduce overall traffic noise and improve comfort inside the vehicle through innovative technologies and tread designs.

Achillefs Tsotras, head of Continental’s Tire-Vehicle Interaction department, says: “Noise, especially traffic noise from cars, buses and delivery vehicles, is a major burden for people and the environment. With tyre technologies like ContiSilent and innovative tread designs, we are actively reducing rolling noise without compromising safety. This makes every ride noticeably quieter, benefiting drivers, pedestrians, residents and the environment alike.”

Continental places a strong focus on developing quiet tyres without sacrificing safety or performance. Rolling noise occurs when tyres come into contact with the road. The resulting sound is only audible within certain speed ranges – typically between about 30 and 100 km/h. The exact noise level depends on factors such as road surface, drivetrain, tyre type and driving style. Generally, at lower speeds engine noise masks tyre noise, while at higher speeds wind noise tends to dominate.

To specifically target tyre noise audible to humans, Continental has developed the Silent Pattern tread design, which is already featured on the EcoContact 7 and EcoContact 7 S models. The tread is optimised for sounds that occur at around 50 km/h, the speed at which rolling noise is most noticeable. To reduce this noise, the spacing and angles of the tread blocks have been deliberately varied.

On conventional tyres, evenly spaced tread blocks hit the road at regular intervals, producing an audible humming sound. By contrast, the irregular arrangement of the Silent Pattern blocks breaks up this regular rhythm, reducing the humming noise. In addition, the pattern is specifically tuned to counteract noise emitted by different tread elements – similar in effect to noise-cancelling headphones. The result is reduced road traffic noise in urban areas, making busy streets noticeably quieter for pedestrians and residents.

To reduce noise inside the vehicle and enhance comfort, Continental offers its ContiSilent technology, which reduces rolling noise in the vehicle cabin caused by air vibrations inside the tyre by up to nine decibels. Since the human ear perceives a 10-decibel reduction as halving the volume – regardless of surrounding noise levels – ContiSilent has a major impact on driving comfort.

The ContiSilent technology uses a special ultra-light polyurethane foam applied to the inside of the tyre during production. This foam absorbs part of the tyre’s vibrations, preventing them from reaching the vehicle interior. Driving performance, fuel efficiency, load capacity and top speed remain unaffected. Designed for summer tyres, ContiSilent is available on various products, including the ultra-high-performance SportContact 7.

Continental offers a wide range of tyres engineered for low rolling noise. Examples include the Conti Urban NXT developed for city buses and the EcoContact 6 Q summer tyre for passenger cars.

In the van segment, the VanContact A/S Eco stands out as a quiet, safe and efficient tyre, meeting the highest EU labelling standards for rolling resistance, wet braking and external rolling noise (A/A/A). When shopping for tyres, customers can easily identify low-noise options by checking labels such as the EU tyre label, which clearly indicates noise levels in decibels.