sustainable AutoSock Project

Offentlig prosjektsammendrag

AutoSock Operations AS ("ASO") has been producing the market's leading alternative to snow chain for two decades. The company is located in the Fred. Olsen headquarter and has distributors with well established sales networks in over 60 countries. ASO's products are among the only certified and legal alternatives to traditional metal chains in large parts of the world, especially in the US, the EU and Japan. AutoSock products are made of textile rather than metal, which saves the end users both weight, installation time and costs. End users range from private individuals to public rescue services, airports and transport companies. AutoSock are available for passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, heavy duty trucks and forklifts. With less than 30 different sizes, AutoSock covers more than 700 different tire dimensions. AutoSock textile traction devices are made of high performance technical type polyester. While the polyester traction fabric shows excellent durability and performance properties on winter roads, it is subject to wear and tear: The fabric will wear off since the friction between fabric and road surface leads to abrasion of polyester fibers – ultimately resulting in microplastic particle emission. Such emissions result in a major ecological problem, and AutoSock sees the need to develop a solution to avoid further microplastic debris through its products. In addition, more and more vehicle manufacturers require that any supplied parts and accessories have a high degree of recyclability or consist of a certain share of biodegradable components, following and exceeding requirements defined in EU directive 2000/53/EG. AutoSock utilizes its extensive knowhow in textile technology to develop the first high performance winter traction device with zero microplastic or heavy metal particle emission, consisting of a 100% biodegradable textile traction fabric.