Test World has won the ‘Tire Industry Supplier of the Year’ award at the Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence 2019. According to the company, the win recognises continued investment in Test World, with expanded indoor test facilities due to be officially opened during a ceremony on the 27 March.
Smithers Rapra is opening a new product testing laboratory in Suzhou, China. The 4,000 square foot facility provides air leak and burst, cleanliness, material properties, salt spray, and pressure, vibration, and temperature (PVT) testing. According to Smithers, the new lab will support the evolving automotive market in China with fluid transfer system expertise, combining with Smithers’ existing labs in Akron, Ohio; Lansing, Michigan; and Shawbury, UK to support global clients.
According to Nokian Tyres, global demand for premium heavy tyres is rising and new, larger tyres for bulkier machinery need to be developed. To meet this demand, the tyre maker’s Nokian Heavy Tyres unit will erect a new research and development centre in Nokia, Finland next year.
Horiba MIRA has appointed Miller Crockart as its new Chief Commercial Officer (CCO).
An experienced commercial leader, Crockart brings with him more than 20 years of international sales experience; most recently global vice president for sales and marketing at PTV, a provider of traffic simulation and optimization software and services for the transportation industry, and now part of Porsche Automobil Holdings SE.
Sulphur dispersion and formulation insights for high-severity service in heavy tyres will be the focus of work shared by two Eastman Tire Additives scientists at the KHK 13th Fall Rubber Colloquium in Hannover, Germany 6-8 November, 2018. The technical presentation by Dr. Dominica Wong will explore why the tensile dispersion test provides valuable insights into sulphur dispersion and how this approach guided the development of innovations such as Eastman Crystex Cure Pro insoluble sulphur. A poster by Dr. Leandro Forciniti will examine how polymers and other additives influence formulations for high-severity service in heavy tyres, including Eastman Impera performance resins.
An opening ceremony has been held for Yokohama Tire Corporation’s new tyre research and development facility in the USA. Local officials joined Yokohama executives for the ribbon-cutting festivities at the 25,000 square foot (2,323 square metre) Yokohama Development Center America (YDCA) in Cornelius, North Carolina. The facility replaces the temporary research and development office that Yokohama has utilised since 2016.
Pinpointing precisely where a winter tyre comes into contact with an icy road surface is surprisingly difficult. Yokohama Rubber partnered with Kanazawa University in Japan to identify this oft-allusive point of contact, and in a statement reports the development of an “evaluation technology that visualises rubber’s frictional state of contact on an icy surface.” Yokohama Rubber expects this evaluation technology to ultimately result in cold weather tyres with dramatically improved ice performance.
With a new 30,000 square metre facility, Sumitomo Rubber Europe GmbH and Dunlop Tech GmbH now have the capability to develop and test tyres, produce liquid latex and design tyre pressure monitoring systems. Following the start of operations in May, their ‘European Development Centre’ in Hanau-Steinheim, Germany officially opened yesterday.
MIRA Technology Institute, a partnership between North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, HORIBA MIRA, Coventry University, Loughborough University and the University of Leicester has detailed a suite of apprenticeships that will underpin their ambition to help the UK develop the next generation of skilled engineers.
After seven years of development Tread Ltd has published an updated website, reflecting “the expanding number of services the firm offers”.
“In addition to subjective and objective test driver support, our fleet of test vehicles has just been updated to reflect the current OEM and REM/Magazine trends for tyre development and fitments using the latest test cars,” the company explained in a statement, adding the following vehicles are now included in its test fleet:
Toyo Tire & Rubber Co has achieved rapid fuel efficiency savings in its truck and bus tyre line-up through its Nano Balance Technology. The manufacturer has been advancing its indigenous rubber material development technology since 2011; the latest step forward is a new process development technology Toyo says will contribute to significant reduction in fuel consumption from “nano processing.”
Dealer Tire, a US replacement tyres and parts distributor for automotive dealerships, has announced it is the leading investor in financing Duke University startup Tyrata, a tyre sensor and data management company.
Already a market leader in the agricultural tyre segment in the North Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe, Turkish tyre manufacturer Petlas is now aiming to increase its passenger car and truck tyre sales figures in the years to come. To this end, the firm reports that it made a series of investments in its passenger car tyre production during 2017.
Pirelli and the University of Milan have renewed a new three-year research deal signed by Marco Tronchetti Provera – Pirelli’s executive vice chairman and CEO – and Ferruccio Resta, rector of the Politecnico University. The original Joint Labs agreement dates back to 2011 with the aim of developing innovative tyre technology for the future.
Continuing the theme of technological development, Linglong Tire – a top five Chinese tyre enterprise – exhibited a number of technological developments including its: a dandelion natural rubber-based tyre, a tyre featuring a graphene compound and a polyurethane tyre manufactured with 3D printing techniques.
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