Observations on the Relation between Laboratory and Test-Stand Measurements of Tire Treads and Their Behavior on the Road

The only way to get a complete picture of the characteristics of tire treads is to classify the tests according to the influence of the compound, construction, type of vehicle, and type of road. Only by adapting tests in the laboratory, on the test stand, and on the road to the nature and intensity of practical service conditions, can good correlation be expected. Laboratory tests show at most the effect of the compound and possibly that of the nature of the road (roughness) and that of the climate (temperature). It is reserved for test stand and road experiments to bring out those properties that are affected by the tread pattern and the type of vehicle. We see as an essential task of laboratory testing technique not so much the creation of new complicated laboratory testing apparatus, as in better and better analysis, using new measuring methods, of the action on tires on test stands and in service, in order from this to find improvements in the available test apparatus and to base these on definite unfalsified elementary processes. The knowledge of the practical conditions not only has the advantage of improving the correlation, but makes it possible even in advance to strive for a goal-seeking development aimed at bettering the tire characteristics, since then one knows in advance what conditions are involved.