Goodyear begins simulation tyre development in Luxembourg

Goodyear has officially opened its simulation centre in Luxembourg which will be used to enhance tyre design and development.

Outfitted with a DiM250 DYNAMIC Driving Simulator developed by VI-grade, Goodyear says the centre is designed to strengthen its collaboration with OEMs and support “elite tyre performance through personalised product development”.

Utilising virtual tyre development process, Goodyear claims its team can use the simulation centre to test and validate tyres 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.

According to Goodyear’s calculations, the centre will give it the ability to develop one physical iteration while saving an average of 13,000 tyres and 97,500km of physical tyre testing.

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.

“Once the automotive engineers experience our virtual development process, they acknowledge both the potential business and possible sustainability impacts.”