
316 Process Techniques for Engineering High-Performance Materials
Asking the Right Questions
A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must
move with the ow of the process, must join it and ow with it.
Frank Herbert, Dune
In the early 1970s, market forces were pressuring the Firestone Tire and
Rubber Company to sell steel-belted radial tires. For several years, the com-
pany had resisted this move, relying on a bias-ply design as a transitional
strategy. Customers were cool to this compromise and they were increas-
ingly switching brands. Once Firestone’s board had nally voted to offer
radials, it was necessary to recongure ...