Yokohama upgrades Thai tire proving grounds

(Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. photos)
The expansion of Yokohama Rubber's Tire Test Center is complete, allowing the company to test tire handling and vibration performance.

RAYONG PROVINCE, Thailand (Dec. 16, 2013) — Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. (YRC) has completed an expansion of its Tire Test Center of Asia in Rayong Province, making improvements at the four-year-old facility that will allow it to test tire handling and vibration performance.

Yokohama did not disclose the size of its investment in the upgrades, which include 1.55-mile dry-handling and 0.9-mile wet-handling courses, a skid pad and a corner hydroplaning test road.

Yokohama executives and employees celebrate the upgrade of the tire maker's Tire Test Center of Asia, posing on a section of the wet-handling course.

The tire maker opened the 417-acre tire proving ground in 2009, opting for a site close to its Yokohama Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) Co. Ltd. factory in Rayong and because of Thailand's rather stable climate.

This is Yokohama's third test track/proving ground. The others are in Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture and on Hokkaido Island, the latter of which is specialized for testing winter tires.

The Rayong center also features a 2.54-mile high-speed track, 2.6-mile course designed to reproduce general road conditions in Asia, a rough road course for testing tire durability and a multipurpose track covering approximately 1 million square feet.

YRC marked the completion of the upgrades with a ceremony on Oct. 9.

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