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Smithers is Approved by Ford for Treadwear Testing

17 March 1998

Smithers is Approved by Ford for Treadwear Testing

    AKRON, Ohio, March 17 -- Smithers Scientific Services Inc.
has been approved by Ford Motor Co.'s Advanced Vehicle Technology
Group as the exclusive independent tire treadwear testing authority for Ford
light trucks, effective model year 2000.
    Smithers' engineers, working with Ford's tire wear process improvement
team, developed the "fast-wear" test route at Smithers Transportation Test
Center in Pecos, Texas, to show whether a tire will give satisfactory
treadlife under severe consumer usage.
    "Most of the test procedures are designed to simulate the worst consumer
driving habits," said Douglas C. Domeck, Smithers' vice president of
technology, pointing out that Ford "wants 95 percent of its customers to get
better treadwear than our test simulates."
    Specifications for the 10,000-mile treadwear test call for a series of
acceleration/deceleration, braking, cornering and stop-and-go city-block
maneuvers all on Smithers' various road courses at its test center in
southwest Texas.
    Ford chose Smithers because "they needed an independent tire testing
organization that could provide the required road courses and test personnel
at one test site, and Smithers filled the bill," said Mr. Domeck.
    Smithers combined two previous procedures into a single treadwear test,
reducing total mileage by 30 percent and cutting the time and cost to conduct
the test.  It is all part of the "Ford 2000" program to reduce the time
required to develop and build a vehicle.
    Smithers is a leading independent testing, research and management
consulting firm, serving an international client base in the tire, automotive,
elastomeric, plastic, chemical, medical device and marine industries.

SOURCE  Smithers Scientific Services, Inc.