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Co-operation with ApolloVredestein and Elastomer Research & Testing


After the summer, a co-operation started between ApolloVredestein, ERT and ETE in the frame of an EFRO project, the European Funds for Regional Development. The aim of this EU program is to reduce economic differences in regional economies, to further develop regional employment markets, and to support co-operation between industry and research. The project focuses on the time- and money-consuming R&D processes in the tire industry; the aim is to shorten these processes and to reduce the effort by using improved modelling and predicting techniques. The project is also concentrating on innovative materials for tires, and this part at the same time is the test case for the improved R&D techniques. Within the project, 2 PhD students are working at ETE, and ApolloVredestein is taking care of the modelling work. ERT, a research laboratory in Deventer with broad experience in rubber is doing complimentary analytical work. At the end of the project, a new tire will be developed with a significantly better performance in terms of rolling resistance, wet grip and noise, the key properties for the quality label of tires, which will be introduced in 2012.