Rubber Consultants works in a wide range of industry sectors - automotive, medical/pharmaceutical, railway, construction, civil engineering, aerospace, oil & gas and alternative energy. Staff regularly participate in international exhibitions covering these sectors, providing opportunities to meet new and existing clients and to keep up to date with current trends.
Information about Rubber Consultants’ extensive range of facilities including testing, analysis, compounding and product design in polymers, elastomers and natural synthetic rubbers, is available at all exhibition stands and staff can put you in contact with the relevant experts at our laboratories.
In 2008 we exhibited at several major exhibitions in Europe including Hannover Subcontracting 2008 and Elmia Subcontractor 2008 in Sweden.
In 2009 you will find us on Stand 4348 at Tire Technology Expo, to be held in Hamburg in Germany from 17th - 19th February. This event is Europe’s only dedicated tyre design and tyre manufacturing exhibition and conference.
We will be promoting the comprehensive independent testing facilities at our site which are UKAS-accredited for endurance testing of passenger commercial vehicle tyres to ECE regulations. The laboratory also has 'technical service' status to the UK Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA) allowing the Consultancy to carry out type approval testing of retreaded truck tyres under European ECE Regulations 109 without the need for the retreader to carry the additional cost of a test witness.
Three tyre testing rigs are available to clients. The first is a commercial vehicle rig, for truck tyre endurance testing to ECE regulations 54 and 109 and rolling resistance testing to ISO 18164, at a maximum load of 5000kg and speed of 65mph. The second is a passenger tyre rig which measures endurance to ECE regulations 30 and 108 at a maximum of load of 2000kg 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.
As part of the conference, which runs alongside the exhibition, RC scientists have been invited to give presentations again this year. The morning session held on Thursday 19th February entitled 'Natural Rubber: The Evolving Polymer' has been organised by TARRC's Director of Research, Dr Andrew Tinker. The session will also be chaired by Dr Tinker. The presentations by RC scientists are:
09.00 – 09.25 'Silica improves NR based truck-tread performance'
Paul Brown, Head, Product Evaluation & Testing Unit
09.50 – 10.15 'Naturally better performance - Improved understanding of rubber-filler interaction'
Stuart Cook, Head, Materials Research & Development Division
10.35 – 11.00 'Enhanced passenger tire tread performance from sustainable resources'
Paul Brown, Head, Product Evaluation & Testing Unit
If you wish to attend or find out more information on TTE then take a look at the official exhibition and conference
website at www.tiretechnology-expo.com.
If you require more information on the papers being presented at TTE by RC scientists please contact the authors
Dr Stuart Cook and Paul Brown.
For further information on the testing facilities available at Rubber Consultants please contact Paul Brown.