Yokohama enhances ice-surface testing capabilities

Tokyo – Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd has installed a new cooling unit in the indoor ice-surface testing facility at the ‘tire test center of Hokkaido in Asahikawa, Japan.

One of the largest of its kind in Japan, the 100 metres-long unit delivers ice-surface temperatures of between minus 10°C and 0°C at a room temperature of 5°C. 

The recently installed chiller supports testing of studless snow tires at “reliably precise temperatures throughout that range,” and adds  new test-capacity in early winter, said a company statement. 

By extending the seasonal span of its brake-testing on ice, Yokohama said it can undertake “a greatly expanded scope of ice-surface testing for studless snow tires, studded tires, and all-season tires.”

In addition to the ‘tire test center of Hokkaido’, the company operates the Yokohama Test Center of Sweden for winter tire testing. 

The Japanese facility handles testing for a global portfolio of winter tires, while the Swedish unit conducts additional tests to confirm the suitability and performance of tires to be sold in continental Europe, Russia and northern Europe.