Michelin donates equipment to Clemson for auto safety research

ERJ staff report (TB)

Greenville, North Carolina -- Michelin Americas Research Co. has donated high-performance equipment to the Edouard Michelin Research Laboratory at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) to foster research to improve the safety of vehicles featuring electronic communications systems.

Michelin contributed to CU-ICAR a Lecroy Wavemaster 8600A oscilloscope, which is capable of taking 20 billion samples of electronic signals per second and storing them for later data analysis, the Greenville-based tyre maker said, noting that the new equipment will help engineers integrate electronic systems more smoothly in vehicles.

It also will allow Clemson researchers to capture phenomena that can occur at ultra-high RF frequencies common to today's vehicles, according to Michelin. This will help them analyse electronic noise generated by engine systems, vehicle safety systems and electric motor drivers with the goal of diagnosing critical failures before they occur.

To date, research at the Edouard Michelin Research Laboratory has made improvements to tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS), modeling and evaluation methods for auto components, and electric motor drivers in the effort to make them less noisy, Michelin said.

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)