▶ Kumho Tire Receives Prestigious IDEA Award. Kumho Tire(CEO: Lee Han-Seob) announced on Thursday that it has received the IDEA Finalist award for 2017 in the automotive and transportation category. Organized by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA), the International Design Excellence Award (IDEA) is one of the world’s most prestigious design competitions, which selects winners in accordance with the five criteria of innovative design, user experience, user benefits, corporate social responsibility and aesthetic values. It is considered the world’s top three design awards along with the iF Design Award and the Red Dot Design Award of Germany. The winning entry for Kumho is the BON (Birth on Nature), a concept tire with future-oriented technologies embedded in it. As the name suggests, the airless tire takes its motif from natural bone structure. Resembling irregular patterns from nature such as those of honeycombs and leaf cells, the Voronoi structure adopted for the BON ensures greater structural stability and economic efficiency. Most airless tires have a unidirectional structure, which could be vulnerable to the load from cornering. In the Voronoi structure used for the entire tread of the BON, the patterns in all directions are intricately interwoven to withstand the load and impact in any driving conditions and the spatial division on the tread is designed to lower material use significantly for excellent efficiency. With minimum use of highly robust materials, the BON not only ensures structural stability but has higher fuel efficiency as it is lighter than comparable products in the market. “With the winning of the IDEA Award this year, we have been recognized for our future-oriented design capabilities and technical expertise,” said Chung Taek-gyun, head of Kumho Tire&rdquos R&D Division, “We are conducting research on a variety of concept tires in response to potential changes in the future. As a global tire maker, we will continue to strengthen our design capabilities and technical expertise to stay ahead of competition in the market.” By receiving the IDEA Award, Kumho has become the first Korean tire maker to win all of the three major design awards for two consecutive years.