Cooper Tire Opens Asia Technical Centre

Cooper Tire’s position as an emerging global tyremaker has been strengthened by the opening of the Cooper Tire Asia Technical Centre in China. Located in Zhudi Town, 35 kilometres northwest of central Shanghai, the 5,000 square metre centre is intended to, says Cooper, to “position the appropriate tools, technology and intellectual resources closer to Cooper’s key customers in the region – its Asia production facilities and the Asia-Pacific markets.”

Facilities at the new centre include test wheels, a tyre forensics laboratory, tyre and rim storage, a vehicle lift, support workshops, materials laboratory plus offices, conference rooms and work rooms. It is estimated that more than 50 Cooper engineers, chemists and technicians will work at the facility, the third such centre operated by Cooper worldwide.

The Asia Technical Center is designed to house different functions. It will be used for developing new products, tyre constructions and tyre designs. It will also have the capability to optimise existing products for performance, quality and manufacturability. For tyre applications, the technology centre can institute test programs for optimising customer value, product improvements, alternative tyre constructions and alternative materials evaluations. In addition, it will be used to maintain tyre engineering specifications, conduct competitor benchmarks, and will lend support to plant operations, and marketing and sales activities. The Technical Center will also help determine tyre design parameters of mould profile shape, bead tie-in configuration and tread pattern design.

Cooper says it expects, with its fully functional Asia Technical Center, it can rapidly develop new products that will meet or exceed customer expectations using its state-of-the-art development and testing capabilities.