One senior officer, Head of the Materials Research & Development Division Dr Stuart Cook, recently participated in Tire Tech Expo 2004 in Stuttgart, the most important annual industry event concerning tyre design, development, manufacturing and production. Dr Cook gave a paper on reactively mixed tyre compounds, a technology exploited at the laboratories with remarkable and consistent success in modifying and improving properties of both NR and SBR based tyre tread compounds through a chemical reaction effected during the mixing stage.

Rubber Consultants' tyre test facilities are some of the most comprehensive independent testing facilities in the world. The site is UKAS-accredited for endurance testing of commercial vehicle tyres to ECE regulations. The laboratory also was awarded 'technical service' status in 2000 allowing the Consultancy to carry out type approval testing of retreaded truck tyres under European ECE Regulation 109 without the need for the retreader to carry the additional cost of a test witness. We are only the second UK test laboratory to achieve this status.

At present three tyre testing rigs are available to clients. The first is a commercial rig, for truck tyre endurance testing to ECE regulations 54 and 109 and rolling resistance testing to ISO 9948, at a maximum load of 5000kg and speed of 65mph. The second is a four-station Akron Standard passenger tyre rig which measures endurance to ECE regulations 30 and 108 at a maximum of load of 2000kg per stand and 150mph. The third rig, a two-station rig of higher load capacity, was designed and assembled in-house and is used primarily to test to ECE regulation 109. This rig has a maximum load of 7000kg and a maximum speed of 60mph.

Endurance testing of retreaded tyres is one area of consultancy work that has seen a significant increase over the past year, due to the introduction of legislation in the UK to enforce conformity with the EC retreaded tyre Directive. This requires all retreaded tyres to go through the EC regulation type approval process already applicable to new tyres for a number of years

For further information please contact Paul Brown.