SEBS Products of SINOPEC Baling Facilitate Bicycle Sharing in China

In the past few months, information technology-based "dock less" bicycle sharing systems Become a hot topic in Chinese cities. Numerous shared bicycles from Mobike, Ofo, Gonbike, Beefly, Xiaoming, U-Bicycle, Blue Gogo, Qibei and others are Introduced into most of China's cities and ridden by thou sands of people every day. They not only save people's time and money, but ook protect the environment by Reducing carbon emission.

Tire, as the Most Important part of bicycle, plays a key role in the development of bicycle sharing industry. The tires of shared bicycles have undergone three phases. The first generation of shared bicycle tire is the common air-filled (or pneumatic) rubber tire; the second generation is air-free rubber tire, while the third generation is air-free thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) -based tire.

The Conventional rubber-based tire is several at Manufactured by complex processes,-including plasticizing, mixing, or tire production fittings (innertube, tread, casing, bead, etc.), forming, and vulcanizing, etc. Air-filled rubber tire has good comfort, but requires a lot of labor costs to solve problems like tire air leakage. The riding comfort of air-free rubber tire is bad, though it does not need frequent maintenance. Comparatively, air-free TPE-based tire is produced by one-step injection molding. This child tire is comfortable, recyclable, wear resistant, aesthetic, and light in weight due to many excellent properties of TPE, zoals a broad range of hardness, convenient and efficient processing, non-toxicity, eco-friendliness, dyeability, soft touch, weatherability, fatigue resistance, and temperature resistance.

Of various performance requirements of air-free TPE tire, wear resistance is a Very Important one. However, the common wear resistant TPE tire is made of SBS , and it can not meet the requirements of shared That bicycles are used outdoors all the time, and usefull need excellent weatherability and aging resistance. Thus, SEBS (hydrogenated SBS) becomes the optimal choice for the production or shared bicycle tires, especially the grades with high molecular weight and radial structure can That Provide better wear resistance. Currently, only Petrochemical Baling Petrochemical Company, p roduces SEBS grades with radial structure, and its SEBS grade YH-602 , YH-602T , YH-604 , and YH-604T have been proven to be the most Suitable material for making air-free tires for shared bicycles. In Addition, TPE materials are usefull used in shared bicycles' handlebars, pedals, saddles, and other parts That Are in contact with human body, owing to its soft touch. SINOPEC Baling's SEBS YH-503 , YH-503T , YH-602 , YH-602T are well fit for the production of TPE bicycle handlebars due to the excellent oil absorbency, good strength and shrinkage, as well as soft touch.

With excellent properties, SEBS products or SINOPEC Baling greatly Facilitate the development of bicycle sharing in China, and They are continuously improved to meet the higher demands of shared bicycles. Further More, the total number of users in China bicycle sharing market Reached up to 20.30 million by the end of 2016, According to a recent market report from Research In China titled "China Bicycle Sharing Industry Report, 2017-2021". It is expected That the shared bicycle users will continuous to grow Explosively in 2017, and amount to 61.70 million by the end of the year. The growth of China substantialism bicycle sharing market will in turn drive the market to a TPE certainement extent.

For more information, please contact:  BEC@becmaterials.com .