Reinforcement in the Twenty-First Century

In the twenty-first century, we have to practice sustainable development (SD) in all our activity under an increasing globalization trend. Technically speaking, globalization is supported by the developments of transportation and information. The latter is, in essence, a transportation of information, i.e., communication, while the former is concerned with that of humankind and cargoes. Reinforcement of rubber is an important issue related to transportation by bicycles, automobiles, and aircraft via tires. Prospective considerations on them are given from a few viewpoints of materials (rubber, nanofiller, cross-linking, etc.), soft processing, and new devices. Particularly, new types of device are to be developed, e.g., airless (non-pneumatic) tires. Overall, it is predicted that rubber reinforcement remains to be an indispensable issue until early in the twenty-second century.