Joe Benavides, section manager at Continental’s brand-new Advanced Indoor Evaluation Center in Uvalde, Texas, reveals more about the facility’s capabilities
Continental has opened a new US$10m Advanced Indoor Evaluation Center at its Uvalde, Texas proving ground to increase the speed at which it develops new technologies. The facility closely mimics Continental’s other worldwide indoor test centers and will provide additional capacity to the tire maker’s other test sites.
Construction for the 15,000ft² facility began in May 2018 and was finished on February 21, 2019. Testing there began in April 2019.
“The facility consists of highly advanced and highly automated indoor tire testing featuring the latest in tire testing technology,” explains Joe Benavides, section manager at Continental’s Advanced Indoor Evaluation Center. “We have the capability of doing static and dynamic indoor tests on tire testing machines for passenger car and light truck tires, including a Flat Trac machine. We plan on ramping up testing to 6,700+ tests per year.”
Currently, six experts are based there, all of whom are from the local area, including San Antonio. This team was assembled over the course of the last nine months.
On-site there are also 24/7 security personnel who manage all entry into the facility.
“Overall, the project went very smoothly. As with all construction projects, there were some small delays, but nothing major in this case,” reveals Benavides. “The coordination between the parties involved in the facility was at times challenging, but in the end, all went well and we now have a highly advanced indoor tire testing technology facility.”
