New advances in automotive technology have made significant inroads to making vehicles safer and reducing injuries and fatalities.  Protocols developed by the US Department of Transportation and the automotive industry, such as NCAP rollover tests, FMVSS 126 electronic stability control, and the TREAD Act, promise to be second only to seat belts in reducing fatalities and accidents.  These new performance specifications, though, are also quite expensive to develop, often leading to more prototype vehicles for proving ground testing.  

Automotive companies can greatly reduce the design cycle through simulation, with one major limitation - accurate tire data, particularly in the varying environments that a vehicle sees.  Tire companies are seeking ways to validate performance more accurately under extreme conditions to meet the criteria laid out by their automotive customers.  Current capabilities are limited to laboratory conditions to provide repeatability, but at the expense of accuracy.  

Camber Ridge has been working with automotive companies, tire companies, controls companies and testing equipment companies to develop a new generation of tire testing capabilities to address many of the limitations of current equipment.  This presentation will address the shortcomings identified by the industry, the desire for new dynamic testing capabilities, and the approach to developing a custom built capability to address these needs.