UTAC, which owns test centres including Millbrook and winter facilities in Ivalo, Finland has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with BlueBinaries to “position the two companies as end-to-end test solutions and services provider for mobility industry globally”.
Nokian Tyres is launching an innovation challenge to change the future of driving. The “Fast Race, Big Change” challenge is an open competition inviting start-ups, businesses, students and academics to innovate for more sustainable tyres. The finalists will be offered the unique opportunity to pitch their idea at Nokian Tyres’ legendary – and rather dauntingly named – ‘White Hell’ tyre testing centre in Lapland, during one lap on a test track. The winner will have the chance to collaborate with the Nokian Tyres R&D experts to craft their idea into reality.
Hankook Tire has expanded its testing and development capacities in Europe with the commissioning of a new test centre in Spain. The facility, located some 40 miles southwest of Barcelona on the premises of the Applus+ IDIADA Group, will enable the tyre maker to “build on even more efficient and state-of-the-art, fully automated test logistics for European tyre development in the future.”
Tyre testing has commenced at the new Nokian Tyres Test Center in Santa Cruz de la Zarza, Spain. The tyre maker is utilising all ten tracks at the site, including the ‘crown jewel’, a seven-kilometre oval track circling the facility.
This year the well-known Finland-based tyre testing centre Test World turns 30. What better way to celebrate than to redouble its efforts to become a comprehensive test centre for summer, winter and all-season tyres? Following the acquisition of Test World’s parent company Millbrook by UTAC CERAM, which was completed at the start of February 2021, key developments towards this goal include: the purchase of the world’s first all-electric winter tyre traction testing light truck and the addition of a new soon-to-be opened proving ground in Morocco. Tyres & Accessories me up Jukka Antila, Technical Director at Test World as well as Millbrook business development manager Andrew Kern in order to find out more.
Horiba Mira has invested £1.5 million in a new Large Climatic Vibration Laboratory and Battery Abuse Facility in response to” soaring demand” from the UK automotive industry for advanced battery safety testing.
Test centre Horiba MIRA has fully converted its facilities into ‘COVID-Secure’ operations in three weeks. On 13 April the company suspended most physical operations at its expansive 850-acre site in Nuneaton and a further facility in Basildon, but safely welcomed the first wave of furloughed employees back to both sites by 4 May, well ahead of the UK government guidelines issued this week.
Horiba MIRA has opened a new Propulsion Test and Development Centre at its UK headquarters in Nuneaton. The centre has been specifically developed in response to the need for OEMs to meet ever-stringent emissions standards since the introduction of the Real Driving Emissions (RDE) test in 2017.
Millbrook is expanding its Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) test facilities. According to the well-known test centre, Millbrook has “the best facilities for testing these cutting-edge technologies in the UK”. In addition to modifications to existing road and test track infrastructure, Millbrook is reportedly making “a significant investment in high-precision instrumentation and soft targets that allow contact without damage”.
A groundbreaking ceremony held today marked the start of construction work on a new testing and technology centre being set up by Nokian Tyres in Spain. Festivities to celebrate the occasion were held at the site in Santa Cruz de la Zarza. Nokian Tyres anticipates the completion of the first test tracks next year ahead of the technology centre attaining full operational status in 2020.
Test World has appointed Andrew Beach as its new business development director. Beach will be responsible for all sales activities at Test World, and play a key role in continuing to accelerate its growth.
Andrew Beach has spent his career working in automotive test and development. He joined Millbrook in 2000 and has been working closely with Test World since its acquisition by Millbrook in September 2015.
Well-known Finnish test centre Test World is expanding its year-round testing options. According to the company, this year it is more than doubling the length of the existing natural snow and ice platforms, and introducing asphalt tracks for wet and dry braking and aquaplaning, all under one roof. The new and extended indoor tracks will be opening from April 2018.
SUVs made up 28 per cent of all European passenger car sales last year, according to automotive market research organisation JATO Dynamics. As research elsewhere in the feature also shows, their phenomenal rise in popularity has created an enormous demand for SUV-specific tyres in larger sizes which still deliver ride comfort, minimal noise and control without sacrificing lifespan.
At the beginning of November Sailun Jinyu International (SJI) appointed Gareth Passmore as its president for Europe. He replaced Martin West, who has been appointed global president of the SJI Speciality Tire Group. Passmore, who started on 1 December 2016, is now responsible for all operations throughout Europe across all of the Sailun Jinyu Group brand portfolio – Sailun, Jinyu, Black Lion and Rovelo. Passmore brings with him over 25 years of tyre industry experience, including time with Continental, Apollo (in South Africa) and latterly with Sumitomo Rubber Industries where he headed up the Falken brand’s European export operations. During a recent brand and winter tyre product demonstration event in Sweden, Tyres & Accessories caught up with Passmore and at the same time we were introduced to Sailun’s ambitious goal of becoming a top 10 tyre manufacturer in the years to come.
The Spanish municipality of Santa Cruz de la Zarza, some 50 miles southeast of Madrid, has been selected as the location of Nokian Tyres’ new technology centre for the testing of summer and winter tyres. The Finnish tyre maker will invest approximately €16 million to build the facility on a site of some 300 hectares. Construction work will begin early in 2017, and while the facility will not be finished until 2019 the first project stage is expected to be completed next year.
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