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Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. uses Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) tools to support many organization areas such as Tire Development, Research, Diversified Products, Manufacturing, Facilities Engineering, etc. This paper will focus on those areas which support the Tire Development process with particular emphasis on Off-Highway and Tractor tires. Most of the techniques are also being applied to support our other tire lines.

Knowledge of the loads and deformations experienced by a tire under operational conditions is essential for the design and testing of tires. Increasing use of analytical stress analysis in the tire design process requires more detailed information on boundary conditions. Increasing use of indoor testing to predict tire endurance makes it necessary to aquire a great deal of information on the magnitudes and distributions of service loads and tire deformations. A technique is described for instrumenting a vehicle's suspension in order to obtain tire loads under operational conditions. Two transducers are also discussed which were developed to measure tire surface strains and tire crown displacements. Tire loads, surface strains, and crown displacements are presented for various track courses and compared with those that can be reproduced on standard indoor test equipment.

The purpose of this paper is to review in general terms the process of tire selection and performance criteria for light vehicles - particularly passenger cars, as seen from the viewpoint of an original equipment tire supplier. This paper proposes the role of passenger car tires in overall community noise is minor. There is almost nothing that can be done to reduce passenger car tire noise below its current level. The author states that the noise perceived inside the car is just as important to consider as passby noise. Lastly, the author stresses that noise is only one of many factors which must be considered in designing and selecting tires for passenger cars.

AS use of tubeless truck tires increases, new methods and new materials constantly are being developed to make them better and better. The author tells what is being contributed by better, stronger synthetic cords such as rayon, nylon, steel or wire, fortisan 36, and dacron; improved compatible adhesives; and new treads and tread patterns. Design innovations and steady advances in repairing and retreading procedures add their part to the constantly brightening picture for tubeless tires.