Bridgestone Americas Center for Research and Technology is a state-of-the-art facility staffed with a multidisciplinary team of highly-trained and experienced scientists from different countries operating under an organizational structure which promotes an ongoing and boundary-free interaction among staff members. We work cooperatively with scientists and engineers from our three major Technical Centers located in Akron, Tokyo and Rome.

In addition we collaborate with leading scientists of different universities and governmental laboratories in our quest to understand the important phenomena confronting us in our daily work.

We measure success by our technical achievement and by the interest in and use of the technology developed by our corporate customers. We are committed to grow in stature by our willingness to learn and change.

The Center has the reputation of being one of the leading laboratories in the world in the field of polymers. It has a rich history and can look back at many accomplishments, among them:

• First "synthetic natural" polyisoprene rubber ("Coral rubber")
• Process for acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) high-impact plastics
• Lithium-initiated, anionic, batch and continuous solution polymerization process for polybutadiene and styrene-butadiene rubber used for tires, plastics and adhesives
• Polyphosphazene "semi-organic" elastomers for applications with low / high temperature and flame-resistant requirements
• Pioneering work on the radiation chemistry of elastomers leading to prevulcanization technology now used in the tire industry
• Ni-catalyzed, high-cis polybutadiene polymerization process
• Head-tail functionalized elastomers from heteroatomic initiators for tires with improved wear and fuel economy