UK-based tyre test specialists Tread Ltd has taken delivery of a new Golf 8 test vehicle. Up till now Tread’s company-owned tyre test fleet has included models such as the: Audi 736 SUV Q7; Audi B9 UUHP S5; VW MQB V7 Golf GTI UHP; and a VW T6 LTR.
Pirelli has begun its 2021 World Rally Championship campaign with two days of private tyre testing in Sardinia. The first day is devoted to gravel and the second day on asphalt. At the wheel of Pirelli’s uniquely-liveried Citroen C3 WRC test car will be Norway’s Andreas Mikkelsen, co-driven by his compatriot Anders Jaeger. The former Volkswagen, Citroen and Hyundai factory driver will be spearheading the development of the latest-generation Pirelli Scorpion tyres for gravel and P Zero tyres for asphalt, which will be supplied exclusively to the World Rally Championship from 2021 to 2024. The new tyres will eventually join the studded Sottozero Ice already displayed at the 2020 GP Ice Race in January in the manufacturer’s WRC tyre line-up.
Following Continental’s first quarter 2020 financial results and reports that the company is preparing to cut its R&D budgets and European tyre production, Tyres & Accessories asked executives at the company’s Hanover, Germany headquarters to comment on the proposals. According to the tyre manufacturer, Continental is “intensively” monitoring European tyre demand and production “including a review of our tyre manufacturing footprint if we conclude that volumes will not recover to expected volumes”. Furthermore, there may have been reductions in tyre testing frequency as an inevitable result of social distancing, but overall research and development budgets remain intact.
Smithers, which provides testing and consultancy services, has upgraded its low temperature retraction instrumentation and capabilities at its rubber physical testing laboratory in Akron, Ohio. According to the company, the new instrument offers improved temperature control for low temperature retraction and the instrument is said to be significantly more efficient, which will improve turnaround times for customers.
Test World reports that it is remaining open to “operate and fulfill a busy schedule of indoor tyre and vehicle testing during the global COVID-19 pandemic”. Writing in an email to customers and contacts published 31 March 2020, company representatives said: “Operating within official health guidance to the strictest degree and treating the health and wellbeing of its staff as the utmost priority, Test World strives to minimise disruption to the industry in these unprecedented times.”
Michelin commissioned a test bed specifically for truck tyres at its Ladoux production site in France back in 2000, its Machine de Recherche en Comportement Poids-Lourd – or MaRCoPoLo, for short. When deciding to modernise this facility 16 years later, the tyre maker chose Siemens as a partner for updating the automation and process control […]
Studies show the tyre/road abrasion caused by vehicles in motion contributes to microplastic and fine dust pollution, making this an issue our industry will increasingly have to consider in future. ZF Test Systems believes its new unit for testing tyre abrasion will enable tyre manufacturers to optimise their development programmes and offer cleaner tyres.
Pirelli has inaugurated a new driving simulator at its research and development division in Milan. The manufacturer says it is using its experience with simulation in Formula 1 to accelerate road tyre development cycles and tyre testing, reducing lead times and reinforcing partnerships with leading car makers with increased agility. Pirelli is the latest premium brand tyre maker to implement new simulation technology into its R&D department, following announcements by Michelin and Goodyear. The Italian brand adds that the new simulator is the latest instalment of its digitalisation strategy.
For the generations raised in the late 20th century, the idea of travel simulators raises images of a capsule for eight people moved around with hydraulics to match a film, or perhaps contestants tasked with landing a plane on The Krypton Factor. Since those heady days, exponential increases in computer processing power and the ability to model a rapidly increasing range of sensory outputs from a highly complex web of inputs. Compared to the relatively broad strokes of retro aeronautical simulation, the convincingly realistic representation of the driving environment has become a legitimate source of automotive research and development. The latest simulation technology is increasingly making its way into tyre development as a means of increasing the efficiency of product development. With Michelin’s announcement that it would install a new Driver-in-the-Loop (DIL) simulator at its North America Research & Development centre in Greenville, South Carolina, USA, Tyres & Accessories got in touch with its manufacturer Ansible Motion and its international manager for the company’s commercial group, Phil Morse to talk about the increasing prevalence of human-in-the-loop simulation within tyre and vehicle development, and the opportunities it offers.
Test World is expanding its service offering to include tyre testing using a skid trailer, co-operating with Applus+ IDIADA to enhance its winter testing capabilities. The test equipment captures tyre adherence measurements, behaviour and characteristics in snow and ice driving environments.
Kenda Rubber Industrial has expanded its research and development centre in Germany, reinforcing its development team in Winsen (Luhe). Italian Antonio Gallo has joined Kenda Europe Technical Center (KETC) as a tyre tester to put the Taiwanese manufacturer’s high-performance tyres through their paces.
As of this month, Sumitomo Rubber Europe GmbH is operating a test track in the north of Sweden. The site will handle all snow and ice testing for Falken winter tyres intended for the European original equipment and replacement markets.
Test World recently won Inari Entrepreneurs Association Company of the Year due to the importance of Test World across the whole Inari region. Since 96 per cent of Test World’s customers are international, local Finnish companies also benefit from the business of Test World’s customers when they travel to the site.
Test World is starting its full programme of winter tyre and vehicle testing after expanding its outdoor tracks in Ivalo, Northern Finland. The team has added 4km of new tracks to meet the rise in demand for tyre and vehicle test services, making the total length 84 km. Some tracks have been reshaped based on customer feedback and to meet changing requirements.
Tread Ltd
Pirelli
Goodyear; Getty Images
Continental AG