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Snap-on Release New Entry-Level Diagnostic Tool

Snap-on has announced the introduction of Ethos, its new entry level diagnostic tool. The Ethos is described as a compact, fast, accurate and versatile tool, designed for either the first time user or to complement existing competitive products. According to the manufacturer, Ethos has the same controls as the two other members of the Snap-on ‘family’ of diagnostic tools – Solus and Modis – and features a large easy to read display.

Ethos also includes onboard memory that allows the technician to store and retrieve details of the last 20 vehicles connected to, saving even more time when reconnecting to the vehicle to verify and confirm the repair. In addition, the CF (Compact Flash) medium can be used for data storage, now standard across the Snap-on ‘family’.

29th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

OTR’s TotalTyreLogic Goes Down Big In Scotland

TotalTyreLogic, the cradle to grave earthmover tyre management system from OTR Tyres, is having a big impact on the quarrying industry in Scotland, where it is being used in more than 30 quarries.

The service tracks, monitors and manages the condition of the tyres, including site surveys and detailed recommendations of operational practices, to aid budgeting and give visible asset management.

Tyre data is correlated by OTR’s Tyre service Engineers through on-site visits and recorded on hand-held organisers before being downloaded directly to bespoke software foe interpretation and analysis. Customers can see and monitor how their tyres are performing on individual machines in specific locations and implement changes as necessary.

28th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Chinese Government Responds to US Countervailing Determination

China’s Ministry of Commerce has published its official response to the countervailing determination set out by the US Department of Commerce on December 10, expressing “strong dissatisfaction over and firm opposition to such a decision.”

The Ministry claims the Department of Commerce has turned a “deaf ear to the US law as well as its own consistent practice” through its decision to break with its practice, maintained since 1984, of not imposing countervailing duties on what it classes as ‘non-market economies’. This non-imposition, says the Ministry, had “already been established as a legal precedent in the US judicial lawsuits” prior to the Department of Commerce’s commencement of a series of five countervailing investigations, which led to US based companies lodging a number of countervailing appeals against products originating in China. Referring to these recent investigations, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce states that “such practices are by no means conducive to the normal development of the bilateral trade and economic ties.”

8th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Aftersoft Gets New Financing Deal

Chester based Aftersoft Group Inc., which supplies business software to the automotive aftermarket, has successfully completed a revolving credit and term loan agreement with ComVest Capital LLC, raising US$6 million in funds for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

Ian Warwick, Aftersoft’s chairman and CEO, said “we have successfully completed a complex financing agreement in a difficult market environment, which reflects the value, stability and growth potential of Aftersoft’s diverse businesses in the automotive aftermarket. Our management team can now turn its full attention to building those businesses, with the ultimate goal of duplicating in the US and other markets the growth and success we have achieved in the UK. In addition, we can now accelerate our efforts to complete the spin-off of Aftersoft from Auto Data Network.” (Tire Review/Akron)

7th January 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

US Tyre Shipments Up?

With the year almost at an end, the Rubber Manufacturers Association now predicts that overall tyre shipments in the U.S. will be up “slightly” in 2007 vs. 2006. RMA says total tyre shipments will increase 2.7% vs. 2006, a year that saw the market drop anywhere from 3% to 7%, depending on the source. The increase, says RMA, will come despite a heavy decline in OE tyre shipments and “are a reflection of revised U.S. economic growth forecasts for both the consumer and commercial sectors.”

Specifically, RMA sees the replacement passenger segment growing 3.3% to 203 million tyres; the replacement LT-metric segment growing by 600,000 units to 34.2 million tyres; and the medium truck segment dropping 2.7% to 16.4 million units. On the OE side, P-metric shipments will drop 4.5% to 46 million tyres; LT-metric will fall 12% to 4.4 million tyres; and OE medium truck will drop 31% to 4.7 million tyres. RMA has not yet issued its final 2006 tyre shipment data.

18th December 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Malaysian NR Output Down 6.7%

Malaysia natural rubber production is down 6.7 per cent year-on-year, according to the local national statistics board. In October production was recorded at 97,627 tons, down 5.7 per cent compared with September. However, exports increased 1.8 per cent compared with October 2006. In October 2007 NR imports totalled 60,212 tons, up 13.8 per cent compared with September. Imports were up 64.3 per cent over October 2006. According to the data, the tyre industry consumed 11.7 per cent of Malaysia’s NR in October 2007.

17th December 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Bandag Releases Updated Aspects Software

Bandag EMEA first launched its Aspects fleet inspection program at Reifen Essen 2006. Since then a growing number of Bandag Dealers and Eurofleet partners have begun using Aspects to demonstrate potential savings on fleets’ tyre budgets. Based upon input from these initial users a new version of Aspects is now available.

Major improvements in the areas of technological development and user friendliness have been made in relation to reporting and data integrity, states Bandag, who claims Aspects provides clear reporting on all aspects of tyre maintenance and fleet tyre policy implementation, as well as indicating the best opportunities for savings on a fleet’s total tyre budget. Using the program’s Out of Service Tyre Analysis module, the root causes of eventual tyre damage and reasons for pulling tyres prematurely can be analysed and reported.

12th December 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Infrared Sensors Measure Tyre Temperature in Realtime

A team of researchers at the School of Science and Engineering at University Campus Hamilton (formerly Bell College Glasgow) is using infrared sensors to monitor the temperature of tyres on racing cars in real time around the racing track, enabling set up changes to be made on the car that lead to improved performance on the track. The research project involves the use of 12 ‘CS Series’ infrared temperature sensors from Micro-Epsilon, three on each wheel of the racing car – on the inside edge, outside edge and centre line.

Each sensor is positioned directly above the surface of the tyre, relaying temperature data back to a data logging system for further analyses. One of the attractions of the sensor is its ability to be positioned a significant distance from the tyre, due to its high resolution 10:1 optics.
In this case, the sensors are positioned 150mm from the tyre but still measure over a small (15mm) diameter surface area.

11th December 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Continental Technology Shines Through in Driverless Test

In what Continental is calling a “high-tech triumph”, the “Boss”, a self-driving Chevrolet Tahoe equipped with Continental technology, won the DARPA Urban Challenge 2007. With the help of a dozen sensors and the Conti know-how in the domain of sensor data fusion, the vehicle’s computer was fed optimally prepared data on its surroundings. As a reward for its efforts the “Boss” development team came away with the top prize – two million dollars.

21st November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Toyo Shares Plunge Following Revelation of False Test Data

Share prices for Toyo Tire & Rubber plummeted following revelations that the company falsified data related to the fire resistance tests conducted on some of its building products. Stocks fell 21 per cent to 131 yen (£0.55), wiping out 27.4 billion yen (£104 million) in market value, the greatest single drop in more than three decades.

The company stated on November 5 that it had reported the issue to Japan’s Land, Infrastructure & Transport Ministry, and Toyo will now most likely have to expend about 4 billion yen (£16.8 million), the equivalent of approximately two-thirds of last year’s profit, rectifying shortcomings in wall and roof components.

8th November 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Beru TPMS Offers WRC Tyre Mousse Alternative

Twenty years on from the introduction of mousse-equipped tyres in the WRC, the technology that allows drivers to continue to the end of the stage is to be banned for 2008. However Beru F1 Systems is taking capitalising on the fact that there are no rules against early warning tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS).

“The mousse ban means drivers need reliable information about tyre condition and performance to prevent damage to the car,” says Beru F1 Systems’ managing director John Bailey. “Digi Tyre could give them warning about potential safety issues or whether changing the wheel is the best solution.”

31st October 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Marangoni Makes it Four in a Row

Italian tyre manufacturer Marangoni is celebrating an unprecedented fourth year of motorsport success after Simone Faggioli won the Italian Hillclimb Championship for a third time with his Zeta Linea Racing-shod, Facetti-tuned Honda-powered Osella PA21S. This adds to the Florentine driver’s incredible record of winning the 2004 and 2006 Italian Hillclimb Championship and a European 2005 title.

The hard-fought 2007 Championship saw some outstanding drives from Faggioli in his bid to retain his title. The longest Championship round, the 17 kilometre Trento Bondone hill, saw mechanical gremlins preventing overall honours at this event but a class win for Faggioli, from strong running team-mate Christian Merli (2nd), with fellow team members David Baldi (4th) and Guilo Regosa (6th). With each of these drivers running Marangoni tyres it was without a doubt a pleasing performance for the tyremaker.

Simone opted out of the Coppa Bruno Carotti climb to manage Team Faggioli, but returned to the cockpit for the 9th Cronscalata del Reventino to record an outright victory. The 46th Coppa Paolino Teodori saw an accident for the Osella and Faggioli slipping to second place in the standings. Heroic efforts by the team to rebuild the car were rewarded with a dominant performance in the 45th Cronoscalata Svolte di Popoli and further victories in the 25th Pedavena/Croce d’Aune and 53rd Coppa Nissena to clinch the Championship.

23rd October 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Amerityre Says It’s Close to Passing Standards

(Akron/Tire Review) Amerityre Corp. says it is continuing to work on its Arcus polyurethane run-flat passenger tyre to make it comply with FMVSS 139 tyre durability regulations. Amerityre claims the Arcus did pass FMVSS 109 standards, which were less strenuous than the new FMVSS 139 standards, which came into effect this past June. In particular, the Arcus did not pass low inflation pressure performance testing, Amerityre said, coming within 15 minutes to passing. In that specific test, a tyre must run at 75 mph at 20 psi for 90 minutes.

“Amerityre’s analysis of the test data indicates that the thicker sidewalls that give the Arcus its run-flat capability impede the tyre from successfully completing the low-pressure segment of the test,” the company stated. “Since the 20 psi pressure used in the low-pressure segment is not sufficient to support the load, the tyre essentially goes into the run-flat mode where it is supported only by its sidewalls. The test requirement of 75 miles per hour for 90 minutes at 100 per cent rated load exceeds the 200 miles at 50 mph capability of the current design. Therefore, Amerityre is making modifications to the Arcus run-flat tyre design and related tooling in order to pass the low-pressure segment of the FMVSS 139 protocol.”

16th October 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

VW Approves Hofmann Geodyna 6900P Balancer

Volkswagen has approved the Hofmann geodyna 6900p automatic wheel balancer for use in the manufacturer’s authorised service centres. Snap-on Equipment will supply the machine with automatic wheel data entry under the designation VAS 6420. The geodyna 6900p joins another five Hofmann wheels balancers approved by VW.

26th September 2007/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Praised in Independent Tests

Bridgestone’s Potenza RE050A, which Bridgestone reports is from the same high-performance range as official F1 tyres, was a top performer in Evo magazine’s 2007 tyre test, while the Turanza ER300 was also praised in the annual Auto Express tyre test.

The RE050A performed well across all nine disciplines in the Evo test, and was particularly strong in wet braking, and curved and straight-line aquaplaning. Evo personnel used quantitative and qualitative data to analyse the performance of nine different tyres from leading manufacturers. The RE050A finished with an impressive 92.7 per cent overall score, less than four per cent behind the overall winner.

The magazine described the RE050A as “on the pace in both the wet and dry tests,” with driver Jethro Bovingdon particularly impressed with its “very predictable” performance on the dry handling track.

21st September 2007/by Tyrepress Editors