RAVENNA, Ohio—A close correlation between what happens in laboratory testing and what occurs in the field is a holy grail of sorts for tire and rubber product manufacturers.
Rewards include drastically reduced development costs and raw material usage, and a faster time-to-market. But getting there poses challenges that require new capabilities.
This is especially true in dynamic material testing, where symbiotic partnerships—such as those that have coalesced at Ace Laboratories between Ace, Seika Machinery Inc. (representing Ueshima machines) and Endurica L.L.C.—are critical to tightening these difficult margins.
"One of our core pieces at Ace—because we do take on the day-to-day testing—is that we want to be on the cutting edge of the testing methodologies that come about," Erick Sharp, president and CEO of Ace Laboratories, told Rubber News during a visit to the Ravenna-based firm.
Ace is maintaining its place at the forefront of material testing with a $1 million investment in (mostly) equipment for a new dynamic testing lab for tires and other rubber products.
The lab in the basement—whirring with Coesfeld, Ueshima and Wallace-brand machines (some of which are using Endurica software)—offers abrasion, friction, cut-and-chip and intrinsic strength analyses, among other services.
"Ueshima, Endurica ... they are not the standard type of testing companies," Sharp said. "Now, we have more arrows in our quiver. We want to be on the leading edge ... with leading edge-types of companies."
The reciprocal benefits are evident for this trio in "stocking" the 7,500-sq.-ft. dynamic testing lab, a small part of Ace's spacious facility.
Atlanta-based Seika Machinery has provided its unique abrasion and friction testing machines for the lab, and Endurica, of Findlay, Ohio, brings its durability and failure prediction software.
In turn, Endurica's software improves with the testing data gleaned at Ace Laboratories, and Seika/Ueshima gets valuable exposure for their abrasion and friction testing machines, which are used extensively in tire manufacturing internationally but sparingly in the U.S.
"We are very excited about this partnership," Tim Cappoen, senior sales manager with Seika, said from his office in Atlanta. "Obviously Erick and his team at Ace have a lot of solid connections in the industry.
"We are excited to leverage this and introduce Ueshima instruments to customers in the U.S."
Ueshima has a strong presence with Tier 1 customers in Asia, and its machines are in some tire development centers in the U.S.
But tire makers "are not going to open their doors for a testing demo," Sharp said.
Ace essentially provides a neutral site that is not behind the proverbial firewall, such that the Ueshima machines can be seen and operated.
"Having our equipment at Ace is a great way to grow and get exposure for our product," Cappoen said. "Putting the machine in my office in Atlanta does not do us much good."
Cappoen said he raised the idea of partnering with Endurica with the company's CEO and president, Will Mars, at last year's Tire Society Conference .
"We talked about doing something together," Cappoen said. "We are looking at whether (Endurica's) software could be used with some of the Ueshima instruments that are at Ace.
"This is some exciting stuff that could be coming down the road."
Mars said his 16-year-old firm is a "software company first and foremost," leading the way in durability testing with the time-to-market mantra, "Get durability right the first time."
"But testing is necessary because our software has to have information from testing," Mars said from his office in western Ohio. "Our crown jewels are software (programs), but we need to get our fingers dirty with the testing.
"So it is very natural for us to partner with a testing lab."
Sharp added that Endurica is a "mastermind of simulations and life-cycle predictability."
"And we are trying to be a resource for them on that," Sharp said.
The seeds of the alignment between Seika/Ueshima and Ace were planted at the International Tire Exhibition & Conference in 2018.
Seika recently had partnered with Ueshima to be the North American representative for the Tokyo-based company.
"I admit we (at Seika) had very little exposure to the tire and rubber industry," Cappoen said. "And Ueshima had little exposure in the U.S. So this was a new venture for us."
Cappoen said Seika ultimately demonstrated a smaller Ueshima dynamic testing machine at ITEC—and Sharp, with Ace still in its nascence, was intrigued.
"He had never seen this instrument before. We both realized this could be interesting," Cappoen said. "Little by little, we started putting the pieces together.
"And this is what makes me excited in this partnership. Maybe we can apply the smart software from Endurica in such a way that it takes Ueshima testing instruments to the next level. I am pretty certain we are going to find things that Ueshima has not been able to do on their own."
While the alignment between Ace, Seika/Ueshima and Endurica is critical for establishing new methodologies for greater testing correlation in the lab, the intent of the lab itself is to align the dizzying workflow of entire industries.
"When you look across the supply chain, from the raw material people, to parts people, to OEMs, ... one of the things I notice is that different disciplines have developed different approaches to durability and wear," Mars said. "Chemists have one way to think about durability, the product people have another way to think about it and the people who build cars have still another way to think about it."
The interfaces between these different disciplines have major barriers, Mars said.
"People get in arguments that bear no fruits," Mars said. "At Endurica, I wonder, how do I connect all these pieces so that there is compatible workflow across all of these interfaces?
"How do I make sure that what we are measuring—that procedure—feeds the next step? Trying to get alignment across a huge workflow is the goal, and it is challenging.
"For the GM and Stellantis people to promise a warranty, that starts with the people who make carbon black and other additives, other compounds. We have to think about how all these things integrate. That's where we're coming from."
Proving out a successful end product still will require iterations, even as efficiencies and simulations in design aid the effort.
"These companies will not work with you unless you have something compelling ... and these machines are an effective way to build evidence that their materials are effective," Cappoen said.
And if developers see a very good correlation between data from a lab and field analytics, well, that is enormously advantageous information.
Such knowledge assists both the tire manufacturer as well as the custom compounder.
"We are trying to align workflows, so ultimately what we can deliver is getting the design right the first time," Mars said.
Such high-end testing—combining the right machines with the right software in the right laboratory setting—can accelerate research and development.
Tire manufacturers and rubber compound developers can use the dynamic testing analyses to formulate new materials with better braking performance, abrasion resistance and energy efficiency.
And with the new dynamic testing space, Ace is rounding out its testing in all phases of tire and rubber product development.
"This is yet another exciting new chapter for Ace Laboratories, and we look forward to leading the way in dynamic material testing and analysis in our industry," Sharp said.
With its analytical testing capabilities, Ace can tell a customer what chemical compounds and fillers make up a given material.
The firm can prove to a customer how that material performs as it is intended, in real time, in real elements, with its physical testing services—the "pushing and pulling," as Sharp says, a field that has some overlap with dynamic testing.
And now Ace can tell a customer how a material operates under dynamic conditions, "accelerated weathering" via frequency, temperature and overall durability-range testing.
"Analytical testing is all about 'what is this stuff and the chemistry behind it?' " Mars said. "With physical testing, a lot of times you are talking about the specifications around quality controls. A lot of physical tests that people do are not necessarily useful in simulations.
"With dynamic testing, you are taking a step toward duty cycle, measuring the things that ultimately will determine what will happen under service conditions with loading, slippage and friction."
Much of the $1 million investment at Ace—about the same amount was invested in a relatively new construction material-testing space at the company—is in equipment additions, including a Ueshima FPS Wear Testing System, known as the AB-2012 FPS Abrasion Tester.
The machine replicates road wear conditions (wet, dry and icy) and can analyze tire material characteristics and predict tread performance, all based on ISO 23337.
The machine works in tandem with Ace's Ueshima Rotational Traction Measuring System, which can measure friction characteristics in tread materials.
The remaining testing systems that round out the lab are shown in the graphic.
"Our expanded dynamic testing lab shows our commitment to being at the forefront of material testing technologies, continuing our growth and diversification of services, investment in equipment, staff additions, partnerships and collaborations," Sharp said. "We're pushing the boundaries to ensure our customers have access to the most advanced and accurate testing solutions so they can accelerate product development and optimize performance.
"It's all a toolbox of testing methods for us."
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