Snow and Ice Traction
Smithers is a legacy leader in winter traction testing for vehicles of all sizes. Our winter testing facility in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has 800 acres of facilities and handling courses for tire traction evaluations.
Webinar: Tire Performance Testing for Winter Conditions and Evaluating Data: ASTM F1572 and ASTM F1650
Original Run Date: Wednesday, October 14, 2020 | download below
Testing tires in winter conditions, specially snow and ice, presents unique challenges when it comes to consistency. Much of this testing occurs outside of a controlled laboratory environment, which necessitates procedures and conditions to improve quality and repeatability of testing data. Additionally, test programs can extend over days or weeks, during which time environmental and test conditions can vary significantly. For tire performance comparisons to be successful, it is crucial to consider how procedures investigate and adjust for systematic or bias variations.
In this one-hour webinar, Smithers expert Eric Pierce delivers an overview of two testing standards that can improve the data gathering and evaluation process for tire performance testing in winter conditions:
- ASTM F1572 - Standard Test Methods for Tire Performance Testing on Snow and Ice Surfaces: ASTM F1572 is a standardized testing method for evaluating the performance of tires on snow and ice, including straight-line acceleration and braking, step steer, slalom, hill climb, and road circuit handling.
- ASTM F1650 - Standard Practice for Evaluating Tire Traction Performance Data Under Varying Test Conditions: ASTM F1650 provides a framework to evaluate tire data for statistically significant trend variations and the means to correct data if needed.
There will be a brief Q&A session at the end of the presentation. The webinar will be recorded for future downloads.
About the Presenter
Eric Pierce joined Smithers in 2016 and specializes in supporting engineering projects related to winter testing of tires and vehicles. He has specific expertise in winter traction testing for passenger, light truck, and truck tires. He has previously worked as a Lab Manager for the Center for Tire Research at Virginia Tech. Pierce is a committee member and sub chairman for the ASTM International Technical Committee F09 on Tires, the Tire Performance Session Chair for Tire Society, and a member of the Industry Advisory Board for the Center for Tire Research. He has a Bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He also served the US Navy, specializing in advanced electronics.