Tyre maker Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has officially opened its simulation centre in Luxembourg for tyre design and development.
Outfitted with a DiM250 Dynamic Driving Simulator developed by VI-grade, the centre is designed to enhance Goodyear’s collaboration with OEMs and support elite tyre performance through personalised product development.
Utilising virtual tyre development process, Goodyear’s team can use the centre to test and validate tyre models for car models that do not yet exist. This allows for speedier production and ensures that tyre modifications can be made in the development process to suit the vehicle’s needs.
Romain Hansen, vice president EMEA Product Development at Goodyear, said, “Our virtual tyre development team has run numerous projects to date with the leading OEMs from Europe, the US and China,” said Hansen. “Once the automotive engineers experience our virtual development process, they acknowledge both the potential business and possible sustainability impacts.”
The centre further cements Goodyear long-standing commitment to safety, wellness and sustainability, it adds. The use of simulated driving allows for fewer physical tyres to be produced and a speedier manufacturing process. It will also help enable Goodyear to achieve first to approval for all development tyres with only one physical iteration. In fact, based on Goodyear calculations, the ability to develop one physical iteration will save an average of 13,000 tyres and 97,500 km of physical tyre testing.
The expansion follows the launch of the inaugural centre in Akron, Ohio, in 2021.
Following a successful first project with Maserati to produce bespoke tyres for the Gran Turismo 2023, the centre is supporting Goodyear on developing tailor-made tyres for OEMs across the world.