Yokohama officially opens Thai proving ground

ERJ staff report (DS)

Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. held an opening ceremony on April 30, 2009, for a new tyre proving ground the company constructed in Rayong Province, Thailand. Began in September 2007, the construction of the facility was completed in December 2008. The proving ground started evaluating tyres in January this year. Yokohama Rubber invests a total of 2.5 billion yen (euro 19.3 million) for the construction.

The facility is a 1.69-million square meter site where the company built a high speed track with a total road length of 4.1 kilometers and a longest straight line of 1 kilometer where a high-speed running test of over 200 km/h is possible as well as a multi purpose track of approximately 100,000 square meters (100 meters in width and 1,000 meters in length). The multi purpose track has been equipped with a wet test course of approximately 9,000 square meters and a special test course that enables the evaluation of driving comfort and noises in a variety of road surface conditions of the world so that tyre evaluation can be carried out in diversified conditions ranging from dry to wet.

In addition, a general road track of 4.2 kilometers with the reproduced general road condtions in Asia was placed around the high speed track to implement more realistic durability tests using actual cars. These test courses are utilized to carry out running tests of passenger car, light truck, truck and bus tires manufactured at Yokohama Rubber Group plants in Japan, Asia and the United States.

At present, Yokohama Rubber evaluates its tyres by using D-PARC, a comprehensive tyre proving ground, and T-MARY, a proving ground specialized in winter tyres, both of which are located in Japan, and contract proving grounds in Japan, Europe and the US. Completion of the Thai facility permits Yokohama to expanded tyre test processing capabilities, shorter test period, easier choice of an evaluation site best suited to each test purpose, and consistent evaluation of tyres under the same conditions throughout a year including wet performance evaluation.

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Press release from Yokohama