Smithers has installed a Simulated On-vehicle Acceleration Testing (SOVAT) machine at its Suzhou laboratory in China. On-vehicle tire testing can be time-consuming, and the new machine will enable faster, more repeatable tread wear, chip and chunk, road hazard endurance and break-in testing, with results available in a fraction of the time taken by tradition equipment.
The machine has a rough drum surface that mimics real roads, and can be fitted with specially designed cleats to simulate road hazards. Lateral and longitudinal forces can be applied to the tires, to more closely simulate on-vehicle conditions. It also supports accelerated wear tests with multiple drive profiles to simulate real-world tread wear. This cuts the time and cost of vehicle wear testing for benchmarking studies. The SOVAT is also equipped with tightly controlled acceleration and deceleration to test wheel covers in operating conditions that resemble the high torque of electric vehicles.
“Our investment in tire testing technologies in the Asia-Pacific region has always been at the forefront of new trends and technologies,” stated Derek Read, vice president of Asia-Pacific and global development in the Smithers Materials Science and Engineering Division.
Smithers’ Henry He, general manager of the materials science and engineering division Asia-Pacific, added, “We’re excited to see how this innovation can improve our clients’ testing results and development timeframes. It just reinforces our desire to provide accurate data, on time, with client-centric collaboration.”
The Smithers tire and wheel testing laboratory in Suzhou was first opened in 2011 to meet the demands of the growing market in the Asia-Pacific region and support the company’s global client base.
