For Phil Mosier, Cooper Tire’s manager of commercial tire development, it’s only when he hears the words, ‘when can I buy these tires?’ does he know new tires in development are ready to go to market. “Engineering and bringing to market a new tire has a lot of stages, but the ultimate moment is when our customers, who have been testing and validating our tires against their current tires, can’t wait to start placing orders,” Mosier said. “That validates our performance in real-world conditions. It’s the proof in the pudding and fleet managers see first-hand how our tire performs as we gather data. So when they get excited and want to buy our tire after the test is complete, it validates even further that we’ve hit a home run.”
According to Mosier, by the time a new tire hits the market, it has passed multiple layers of developmental, design and on-road testing – not to mention government and Greenhouse Gas regulations — so that the tire will meet or exceed customer expectations. “For a product that looks simple in nature, it’s not simple to produce,” said Mosier.
“In the lab, our tire engineers look for innovative ways to enhance previous tire models or, develop an entirely new tire,” said Mosier. “With the help of computer modeling and other technology, we’re are able to test new tire designs to see if we’re on our way in developing a breakthrough design. It allows us to test theoretical performance and gain surface-level insight into a tire’s predicted performance. We can also test new compounds in our compounding lab to see how they might perform and hold up over time. But, that’s just the start.”
Once a design is deemed “test ready,” and prototypes are made, Cooper takes to a commercial test track to get a glimpse into the tire’s real, over-the-road performance. Through track tests, engineers evaluate a tires’ performance in a controlled environment and can put on heavy miles by running around the clock. Cooper tests on tracks that also have built-in obstacle courses, to test the tread and sidewalls to ensure grip, durability, and chip/chunk resistance.
While track testing provides Cooper’s engineers with the information needed to see how the prototypes are performing, it also allows for benchmarking competitive tires. The data collected is a barometer – a forecast of future performance. But, to ensure accuracy, Cooper moves from the track to the road.
To see the true performance of new tires, Cooper relies on fleets to test their tires in a variety of road conditions. “And, the fleets we choose for tire trials are typically ones that make runs on North America’s toughest roadways,” said Mosier.
“We select companies that we believe will push our tires to the limit. Our tires need to prove they can handle harsh conditions. When we trial tires for waste hauling applications, we look for a mix of fleets operating in all conditions – cold and snowy, mild and wet, hot and dry — pretty much any driving condition you can think of. We also like to get a good cross-section of the waste industry by evaluating tires in residential and commercial applications. Even within those applications, we like to see how the tires perform in different truck configurations like front loaders, rear loaders, side loaders, and roll-offs. Many waste fleets judge tires not only on how many miles they went, but also how many service hours they lasted for. In some severe residential waste applications, the tires may last for 2 to 3 months. So squeezing an extra couple of weeks out of the tires can mean a lot to the bottom line. Ultimately, we want our tires to handle the toughest conditions, so that there are no surprises come production time.”
During trial runs, Cooper will fit multiple trucks in a fleet and run similar routes with the same average miles per month. “Oftentimes we will be evaluating multiple variations of a new tire design – there may be different compounding for example, but the same tread design. We may love the durability characteristics of one tire, yet the performance of another. We’ll then go back to the lab to fine-tune development. From there, we’ll then do another round of field testing to see where we stand.”
To ensure field tests will result in fair and accurate results, Cooper works with fleets that prioritize their maintenance programs. “It’s essential to work with companies that are on top of their trucks’ maintenance. If a truck is out-of-alignment or tires are underinflated, we’ll see uneven tire wear and the test won’t be accurate,” said Mosier. “To make sure the trial is going accordingly, we’ll meet with the fleets regularly to receive feedback from the company, check the tires to see how they wear, what the tread life is, as well as a number of other factors to see how they’re performing.
“When we examine our tires, we’re looking for anything that appears to strike out as irregular, or issues we notice that are common across the tires tested,” said Mosier. “And, we want to validate that our new design can hold up better when curbing, or running in dumpsites — we want to see less damage from cuts and chunking in our test tires. If we see something we feel we can improve, our engineers will then go back to the lab to improve performance.”
Sometimes it’s not only the tire’s performance on the truck or in the field that matters. “On one occasion a customer’s service technician was having difficulties mounting and dismounting test tires,” recalled Mosier. “So we had our Field Engineer provide him with the industry’s best practices for mounting tires and that helped a great deal. But, in talking with him, it led us to go back and take another look at the bead area, and by doing so we identified a new solution for improving the tire. The result made for easier tire mounting.
“For us, it’s important to be highly critical of our tires,” concluded Mosier. “Not only do we compare our new tire design to its predecessor, but we also see how it stacks up against Tier 1 tires. We’ll often bring in our competitors’ latest tires to see how we measure up. We need to be confident that our tires will perform up to high standards and our testing processes play an instrumental part in affirming our confidence.”