How everything got started: In 1899 Continental AG, the holding company of ContiTech, registered its trademark - for drive belts, among other things. Production got off the ground with belts for industrial applications. Soon thereafter the company offered the first motorcycle Vbelts, which were locked into an endless loop at the time. Just prior to the World War I, cars in the US began to switch from gas lamps to electric lights, making it necessary to find a way to transmit the power of the generator with as little loss as possible. The endless Vbelt was born. A few years later the product was ready for volume production and the company saw its chance. By 1927 there were already 36 sizes for all of the most common vehicle models. Only three years later the developers applied for patents on toothed rubber Vbelts.
The first cam shaft drive timing belt for cars - back in 1961 - also came from ContiTech. It was made of polyurethane, with embedded steel tensile members. In 1966/67 the drive belt specialists experimented with rubber timing belts for the first time. It marked the debut of the heavyduty CONTI SYNCHROBELT® timing belt.
To this day ContiTech remains a trailblazer: The company's CONTI-V® PIONEER represents the world's first ecofriendly Vbelt for industrial applications. With this development ContiTech is helping to conserve resources. The CONTI-V® PIONEER is the first belt anywhere in the world made primarily of renewable raw materials.