Crain News Service report
HANOVER, Germany (May 1, 2013) — Continental A.G.'s weather-independent Automated Indoor Braking Analyzer (AIBA) tire testing facility has picked up an award.
The international jury of the annual Vehicle Dynamic Innovation Award 2013 named Continental's AIBA tire testing facility in the Innovation of Year category.
The AIBA facility, which Conti set up last autumn, will be able to test the braking characteristics of up to 100,000 tires annually on dry, wet and icy road surfaces all year round—once the current industrialization phase is complete, according to a news release.
The new facility is located at the Contidrom test track, not far from the company's headquarters in Hanover. In the facility, a driverless test vehicle is accelerated to up to 120 km/h fully automatically. Its brakes are then applied on various standardized road surfaces that can be easily exchanged by means of a hydraulic system.
Continental said the 29 experts on the jury praised the fact that it is now significantly easier to compare and reproduce test results.
This report appeared in European Rubber Journal, a UK-based sister publication of Tire Business.