When the tyre industry speaks today about digitalisation, virtual validation and sustainability, it often does so in abstract terms – models, data sets, algorithms and computing power. Yet, at its core, tyre development remains an intrinsically human endeavour. Grip, stability, steering feel and ride comfort are ultimately experienced by people, not machines. Bridging that divide between digital precision and human perception has become one of the defining challenges of modern tyre R&D.

Few companies sit more squarely at that intersection than Ansible Motion. Known globally for its high-fidelity Driver-in-the-Loop (DIL) simulators, the company has, over the past decade and a half, quietly reshaped how vehicle manufacturers, motorsport teams and – most notably – tyre makers think about simulation-led development.

At the centre of this evolution is Salman Safdar, Executive Director at Ansible Motion, whose perspective is shaped not only by technological ambition but also by a deep understanding of how tyres influence the driving experience in ways that no other vehicle component can.

ORIGINS ROOTED IN FIRST PRINCIPLES

Although Ansible Motion is frequently associated with motorsport and advanced vehicle simulation, its origin story is less about racing glamour and more about questioning inherited assumptions. When the company was founded in 2009, the dominant simulator architectures used in motorsport had been adapted from aerospace applications – an approach that Safdar and his colleagues believed was fundamentally flawed.

“When we started the company in 2009, it was to provide an alternative to aerospace-derived simulator architectures that were beginning to make their way into motorsport applications. At the time, many high-level racing teams were investing in technologies that were, from a first principles perspective, better suited to simulating aircraft than ground vehicles,” Safdar explains.

Aircraft and cars, after all, interact with their environments in profoundly different ways. Aerodynamic forces act over long distances and gentle arcs, while tyres generate immediate, localised forces through a constantly changing contact patch. Subtle road surface irregularities, rapid directional changes and short-range visual cues define the driving experience on the ground.“We intentionally departed from the popular, but limited, hexapod – or Stewart platform – and invented a novel, six-degree-of-freedom motion system built in logical layers corresponding to primary ground vehicle axes. The intention was that it would be linear, agile and highly dynamic – and that it would be much better suited to simulating ground vehicles than anything else,” Safdar explains.

Tyres, he notes, were central to that architectural rethink from the very beginning. “Tyres are one of the fundamental reasons why ground vehicle simulators need to be architecturally different from aerospace simulators. Directional changes are immediate with tyres… subtle disturbances that result from pavement irregularities are ever-present… human sensory experiences regarding vehicle control and stability are fundamentally different,” he says.

In that sense, tyre performance was embedded in Ansible Motion’s DNA long before the tyre industry itself became a direct customer.

FROM VEHICLE OEMS TO TYRE MANUFACTURERS

For much of its early life, Ansible Motion’s simulators were deployed primarily by vehicle manufacturers and elite motorsport teams. The tyre industry, traditionally more conservative in its adoption of immersive simulation, took longer to engage directly. That has now changed decisively.

“Today, the tyre industry is a core strategic pillar in our simulation R&D and sales pipeline, alongside OEM vehicle development, advanced mobility research programmes and motorsport. Currently, Michelin, Continental, Nexen, and most recently, Kumho Tire are trusting Ansible Motion driving simulators to develop their next generation of tyres,” Safdar says.

This shift reflects broader pressures reshaping tyre R&D. Development cycles are shortening, sustainability targets are tightening and the cost of physical testing – both financial and environmental – is under intense scrutiny. At the same time, the rise of electric vehicles has introduced new performance trade-offs, forcing tyre engineers to balance rolling resistance, noise, durability and grip in unfamiliar combinations.

Against this backdrop, Driver-in-the-Loop simulation has emerged as a powerful complement to conventional modelling and laboratory testing.

WHY DRIVER-IN-THE-LOOP MATTERS

At its simplest, DIL simulation places a human driver inside a virtual vehicle, interacting in real time with simulated tyres, roads and vehicle systems. For Safdar, the value lies precisely in that human presence.

“The key aspect of Driver-in-the-Loop simulation is the human element. Unlike other simulation and lab testing approaches, DIL simulation invites – in fact, it requires – human participation,” he says.

Modern tyre development depends on a complex interplay between objective metrics and subjective perception. Measurements of braking distance, lateral force or rolling resistance must ultimately align with how a tyre feels to a driver – how it communicates grip, how it responds on centre, how it rides over imperfect surfaces.

DIL simulators allow these subjective attributes to be explored much earlier in the development cycle and more frequently than is possible with physical prototypes alone. Crucially, this happens in parallel with traditional simulation and modelling work, not in isolation.

“This allows critical decisions to be made early enough to avoid delays and unexpected expenses in later stages of programmes. It also reduces costs and environmental impacts due to reduced prototyping,” Safdar notes.

Beyond efficiency gains, Safdar emphasises a less tangible but equally important benefit: collaboration. DIL simulators function as hubs where engineers, test drivers and decision-makers can converge around a shared experience.

“In a sense it enables tyre engineers to be engineers – so they can be more creative in a lower-risk environment,” he says.

THE KUMHO TIRE CASE STUDY

The partnership with Kumho Tire provides a clear illustration of how these principles translate into practice. Framed under the banner ‘Driving the Future with Digital Tyres’, the collaboration reflects a shared ambition to accelerate tyre development through digitalisation while embedding subjective assessment earlier in the design process.

“Both Kumho Tire and Ansible have a shared ambition to accelerate tyre development through digitalisation and to inject subjective assessments into earlier tyre design stages,” Safdar says.

Achieving that ambition requires more than just motion hardware. High-fidelity sensory cueing – perfect synchronisation between motion, visuals and steering feedback – is essential if drivers are to trust what they feel in the simulator. Equally important is process optimisation: a computational environment that integrates multiple modelling tools seamlessly and allows engineers to run tests efficiently and extract meaningful data.

Modern tyre development depends on a complex interplay between objective metrics and subjective perception. Measurements of braking distance, lateral force or rolling resistance must ultimately align with how a tyre feels to a driver – how it communicates grip, how it responds on centre, how it rides over imperfect surfaces.

Safdar believes Ansible Motion’s strength lies in precisely that integration capability. “We believe that Kumho Tire, in part, selected Ansible Motion due to our expertise in integrating advanced tyre models with other HIL, MIL, SIL software and hardware elements,” he explains, referencing hardware-, model- and software-in-the-loop methodologies. High-fidelity digital road surfaces, developed by Ansible Motion’s sister company rFpro, also play a key role.

There is also a market reality underpinning the partnership. “Within a highly competitive space, Ansible Motion supplies over 50 percent of engineering-grade DIL simulators to the marketplace. So perhaps there is some confidence in working with us,” Safdar notes.

FROM ASPIRATIONS TO MEASURABLE OUTCOMES

Digital transformation initiatives often falter at the point where aspiration meets execution. Safdar is candid about the need for clear targets and measurable outcomes if DIL simulation is to deliver real value.

“It’s important to have the aspirations in the first place. But it’s important to clearly identify targets and be able to measure achievements towards them,” he says.

He illustrates this using the concept of multi-attribute spider – or radar – charts, commonly used by tyre engineers to visualise trade-offs. For electric vehicle tyres, key attributes might include rolling resistance, durability, noise, wet and dry traction, load capacity and material sustainability. Improvements in one area often come at the expense of another.

“The end goal is to create a tyre that strikes an acceptable balance for a particular vehicle application,” Safdar explains.

The same logic applies to high-performance tyres, albeit with a different set of priorities: dry braking, wet handling, comfort, on-centre feel and tread wear, among others.

“Designing a tyre is a complex process. The utility of DIL simulation lies in its ability to keep real people involved with conceptual – digital – explorations of all the above trade-offs,” he says.

In practical terms, success can be measured in several ways. How much time was saved in reaching a design decision? How many prototype tyres were avoided? Did virtual prototyping improve alignment between objective data and subjective perception?

In some cases, entirely new metrics emerge, such as improved communication between tyre suppliers and vehicle OEMs during fitment programmes.

REPLICATING TYRE-ROAD INTERACTION

A recurring scepticism surrounding simulation is whether virtual environments can ever replicate the complexity of real-world tyre-road interaction with sufficient fidelity. Safdar’s response is clear: the fidelity depends less on the simulator itself and more on the quality of the models it integrates.

“DIL simulation – except for the human participant – is indeed a virtual environment. This means that human-experienced ‘tyres’ and ‘roadways’ and ‘vehicles’ are computer representations,” he says.

Ansible Motion does not develop tyre, road or vehicle models in-house. Instead, it provides an open, scalable co-simulation architecture – the Distributed Data Bus (DDB) – that connects industry-leading third-party models and customer-developed tools in real time.

“This gives our customers an engineering sandbox where they can use and combine different models that come from trusted third-party simulation providers as well as models that they might develop in-house,” Safdar explains.

The result is a test environment where subjective and objective assessments are conducted much as they would be on a proving ground – except that changes are made with keystrokes rather than tools, and hundreds of evaluations can be run without interrupting a driver’s mental state.

Safdar cites a recent example from Ansible Motion’s UK R&D centre, where a customer ran parallel DIL sessions on opposite sides of the globe. Within four hours, the teams gathered sufficient data to inform the next phase of tyre development. The equivalent physical testing, used as a correlation benchmark, had taken two weeks.

“Test drivers were scoring physical tyres against virtual tyres and seeking correlation within five percent – which they achieved,” he says.

THE DELTA S3 ECOSYSTEM

Central to many of these applications is Ansible Motion’s Delta S3 class of DIL simulators, including variants such as the Delta S3 Spin and S3 Thrust. Safdar is careful to describe them not merely as platforms but as complete ecosystems.

“They are turn-key DIL ecosystems that include all aspects of sensory cueing, including high-fidelity motion, visuals, steering feedback, haptics and audio,” he says.

Correlation with real-world data, he argues, is primarily a function of model quality rather than simulator mechanics. The simulator’s role is to deliver sensory cues accurately and collect driver inputs faithfully, while the DDB ensures synchronised execution across all models.

“If a simulator session and its supporting models are set up correctly… correlation is typically not an issue,” Safdar says. Deviations, when they occur, are often treated as valuable insights that help refine the models themselves.

WHERE SIMULATION DELIVERS THE GREATEST VALUE

From a tyre engineer’s perspective, the greatest benefits of simulation-based validation emerge early in the development cycle, when design freedom is at its highest.

“Simulation allows quick sanity checks on the numerous models and directs attention towards focused refinements of the selected few that show promise. This allows significant cost and time saving,” Safdar explains.

Further downstream, DIL simulation can eliminate entire rounds of prototype iterations, particularly in OEM fitment programmes. The return on investment is often easy for tyre manufacturers to quantify. Safdar points to Continental’s estimate that its simulator usage eliminates around 10,000 sets of test tyres per year, along with roughly 100,000 kilometres of physical driving.

MEETING THE EV CHALLENGE

Electric vehicles have intensified the demands placed on tyres. Higher torque loads, increased vehicle mass, stricter noise requirements and heightened sensitivity to rolling resistance all converge in ways that challenge traditional development approaches.

“Ansible Motion simulators can replicate a wide range of EV-specific scenarios, enabling engineers to tune vehicle performance by testing high torque behaviour, instantaneous load changes, lane changes, high-speed cornering and braking, while also modelling NVH and cabin noise more accurately,” Safdar says.

With lightweight vehicle structures limiting the use of sound-deadening materials, tyres play an increasingly prominent role in overall NVH performance. DIL simulators also allow safe exploration of energy efficiency, regenerative braking strategies and charge-deplete cycles.

Crucially, they enable engineers to explore rolling resistance optimisation in the context of competing trade-offs, such as reinforced constructions required to handle battery weight and torque.

DEFINING THE DIGITAL TYRE

Safdar defines a digital tyre as “a validated virtual representation of a real tyre which considers material properties, compound, tread design, tyre profile, contact patch information, aerodynamic and thermodynamic properties.”

Commercial viability depends on establishing strong correlation between digital and physical tyres, often through close collaboration with vehicle OEMs. When implemented effectively, virtual validation reduces reliance on early prototypes – saving time, cost and environmental impact.

“DIL simulation, in particular by incorporating the test driver’s subjective feedback at the early design phase, can inject insights that would otherwise not be discovered, thus avoiding costly late changes,” Safdar notes.

EXPANDING THE GLOBAL FOOTPRINT

Beyond established partnerships with Kumho, Continental and Michelin, Ansible Motion sees growing demand for digital R&D infrastructure across regions, particularly in Asia. OEM-driven virtual development programmes are increasingly mandating simulator use among suppliers.

Emerging markets and new entrants, especially in China’s rapidly expanding EV sector, represent a further growth opportunity. For these companies, simulation offers a way to compete with established brands on speed, cost and measurable ROI.

“Speed, reasonable cost and measurable ROI are key to success. And we’re happy that this falls within the core competencies of Ansible Motion’s products and solutions,” Safdar says.

LOOKING AHEAD

Over the next 5–10 years, Safdar expects tyre development to be shaped increasingly by digital twins and AI-generated models incorporating new compounds and manufacturing processes. Validation demands will rise, as will regulatory scrutiny, making simulation indispensable not only for development but also for homologation.

“Subjective driver evaluation remains a critical cornerstone of the driving experience and brand identity,” he says. Sustainability pressures will further accelerate the shift towards virtual validation.

“If we can help reduce environmental impacts and reliance on physical prototypes, we are happy to be a part of it,” Safdar concludes. “We would like to think that Ansible Motion is positioned as a key enabler of digital, data-driven tyre innovations.”

As India’s industrial sector accelerates its shift towards cleaner energy, tyre manufacturers are emerging as a critical test case for integrating renewable power into continuous, high-load operations. In this conversation, Kuldeep Jain, Founder and Managing Director of CleanMax, outlines how demand from companies such as CEAT and Michelin is reshaping renewable procurement – from conventional solar contracts to hybrid, round-the-clock solutions – while positioning clean energy as both an operational necessity and a strategic lever for decarbonisation.

Industrial decarbonisation in India is entering a more operational phase, where renewable electricity is no longer a peripheral lever but an embedded component of manufacturing strategy. For CleanMax, this shift is most visible in energy-intensive sectors such as tyre manufacturing, where continuous processes, global supply-chain pressures and ESG commitments are converging to reshape how power is procured and consumed.

Kuldeep Jain, Founder and Managing Director of CleanMax, describes a market moving beyond cost arbitrage towards structural integration of clean energy. Demand from tyre manufacturers – long characterised by high, stable electricity loads – is now influencing both project design and procurement models, pushing developers towards hybrid and round-the-clock renewable solutions. 

Energy-intensive industries are increasingly prioritising renewable electricity to manage power costs and reduce operational emissions. Manufacturing sectors with continuous loads are particularly suited to long-term renewable procurement models such as group captive and open-access PPAs, which provide cost stability while supporting decarbonisation goals,” Jain says.

That demand is already translating into project pipelines. CleanMax’s collaboration with CEAT involves developing 59 MW of hybrid wind-solar capacity to supply renewable power to its Halol and Kanchipuram plants. Similarly, its engagement with Michelin includes an open-access solar power purchase agreement supporting operations at the company’s Chennai facility.

“These projects illustrate how large industrial consumers are integrating renewables into their long-term energy strategy. For instance, globally, the International Energy Agency has already noted that industrial electrification and renewable procurement will drive the next phase of the energy transition. Tyres are firmly in that wave,” Jain notes.

FROM INTERMITTENT SUPPLY TO ENGINEERED RELIABILITY

Tyre manufacturing presents a distinctive challenge for renewable integration. Plants operate continuous processes – mixing, curing and vulcanisation – that require stable baseload electricity and thermal energy. Traditional solar PPAs, while cost-effective, are inherently intermittent, limiting their suitability for such operations.

The industry is therefore evolving towards hybrid models that combine multiple renewable sources. “Hybrid projects are gaining traction because they smooth generation across the day, improving plant load factors,” Jain says. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, such hybrid systems are among the fastest-scaling formats for industrial decarbonisation.

“As a result, the industry is moving beyond single-source solar PPAs towards wind-solar hybrid projects and open-access group captive models that provide higher plant load factors and more balanced generation profiles across the day. Wind-solar hybrid is increasingly seen as the most practical and efficient pathway to scale renewable penetration in continuous manufacturing environments,” Jain explains.

This shift reflects a broader reframing of renewables – not as intermittent substitutes for fossil fuel power but as engineered systems tailored to industrial demand curves. The emphasis is on aligning generation profiles with consumption patterns, rather than expecting operations to adapt to variable supply.

SECTOR-SPECIFIC DECARBONISATION PATHWAYS

Not all heavy industries decarbonise along the same trajectory. Jain draws a clear distinction between tyre manufacturing and sectors such as cement or steel, where process emissions form a significant share of the carbon footprint.

“If you step back, industries don’t decarbonise in the same way because they don’t consume energy in the same way. A tyre plant is largely powered by electricity. So if you clean up the electricity, you’ve already addressed a meaningful part of its emissions,” he says.

However, the challenge lies in reliability. “These are continuous operations. They don’t switch off when the sun sets or the wind drops. That’s why hybrid becomes important, as a way of shaping energy to demand,” Jain adds.

“In case of cement or steel, a significant portion of emissions comes from how the product itself is made. So the shift we’re seeing is subtle but important. It’s about redesigning the energy profile itself so that clean energy isn’t intermittent in theory but dependable in practice,” he continues.

The implication is that electrification-driven sectors such as tyre manufacturing can achieve faster decarbonisation gains through renewable procurement, provided supply reliability is addressed through hybridisation and system design.

ESG, PRODUCT STRATEGY AND COMPETITIVE POSITIONING

Renewable energy is also assuming a more strategic role within tyre companies’ ESG frameworks. What began as a cost-management exercise is increasingly tied to product innovation, sustainability reporting and global competitiveness.

“The conversation around renewable energy in the tyre industry has clearly evolved beyond cost optimisation. Many manufacturers are increasingly integrating renewable power into their broader ESG strategies and supply-chain decarbonisation commitments, particularly as global automotive OEMs push for lower-carbon sourcing across the value chain,” Jain says.

This transition is evident at the product level. CEAT’s launch of its SecuraDrive CIRCL tyre – produced with up to 90 percent sustainable materials – signals how manufacturers are aligning product design with sustainability objectives.

“Renewable electricity procurement helps reduce Scope 2 emissions and supports the development of lower-carbon products, which is becoming an important factor in both sustainability reporting and global competitiveness. As a result, renewable energy is now seen not only as a cost-management tool but also as a strategic lever for product decarbonisation and ESG positioning,” Jain explains.

TECHNOLOGY MIX AND OPERATIONAL ALIGNMENT

From a systems perspective, no single technology provides a complete solution. CleanMax advocates a portfolio approach that combines generation assets with digital tools and flexible contracting structures.

“A portfolio approach works best. For manufacturing operations with steady electricity demand, hybrid renewable systems combining solar and wind have proven effective, as the complementary generation profiles improve overall availability and plant load factors,” Jain says.

Digital energy management platforms play a supporting role by optimising dispatch and aligning supply with consumption patterns. Flexible procurement structures, including open-access and group captive models, further enhance adaptability across sites and regulatory regimes.

“In practice, hybrid setups combining solar and wind have proven effective because they smooth generation across the day and improve overall availability. That’s what makes renewable power usable at scale,” Jain adds.

The CEAT and Michelin projects exemplify this approach, integrating multiple procurement pathways – onsite solar, offsite generation and open-access PPAs – to increase renewable penetration without compromising operational stability.

POLICY VARIABILITY AND MULTI-LOCATION STRATEGIES

India’s regulatory landscape remains heterogeneous, with state-level policies shaping the feasibility and economics of renewable procurement. For tyre manufacturers operating across multiple locations, this creates both complexity and opportunity.

“Overall, the ecosystem is steadily evolving to support higher renewable penetration practically. Open-access mechanisms are becoming more aligned with industrial needs. Renewable procurement is naturally becoming more location-specific,” Jain says.

Different state frameworks enable companies to tailor their energy mix – combining onsite solar with offsite wind or solar depending on regional resource availability and regulatory incentives.

“In practice, this leads to more balanced and resilient energy portfolios. This is also where developers with experience across markets can add value by structuring solutions that are aligned to each site’s load profile, regulatory context and long-term cost objectives, rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach,” Jain explains.

GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS AND RISING EXPECTATIONS

Pressure from global automotive OEMs is accelerating the adoption of renewable energy in India’s tyre sector. As manufacturers integrate more deeply into international supply chains, emissions performance is becoming a criterion for sourcing decisions.

“As tyre manufacturers become more integrated with global OEM supply chains, expectations around emissions are becoming more defined. Renewable electricity is one of the more immediate ways to address this, especially for Scope 2 emissions,” Jain says.

“What we’re seeing is more about alignment – companies are adapting their energy mix to stay relevant in global markets, where sustainability is increasingly part of how sourcing decisions are made,” Jain says.

This dynamic is likely to intensify as OEMs tighten decarbonisation targets and extend accountability across their value chains, reinforcing the role of renewable energy in industrial competitiveness.

THE NEXT FRONTIER: TRACEABILITY AND CARBON MARKETS

As companies move towards net-zero targets, the focus is broadening beyond direct emissions to include value-chain impacts and verification mechanisms.

“Instruments such as renewable energy certificates and carbon markets help companies transparently account for the renewable electricity they procure. At the same time, there is growing focus on Scope 3 reporting as manufacturers work to address emissions across their broader value chains and align with global supply-chain decarbonisation expectations,” Jain says.

Traceability – ensuring that renewable energy claims are verifiable and auditable – is expected to become increasingly important, particularly for export-oriented manufacturers facing stringent disclosure requirements.

A DECADE OUTLOOK: ACHIEVABLE, BUT CONDITIONAL

Looking ahead, Jain is cautiously optimistic about the pace of renewable adoption in India’s tyre manufacturing sector. The fundamentals – declining costs, expanding capacity and supportive policy evolution – are largely in place.

“Over the next decade, higher renewable penetration in tyre manufacturing is well within reach, especially as clean power availability continues to expand. For electricity-led operations, increasing the share of renewable energy is already a practical pathway, not a distant target,” he says.

However, execution will hinge on system-level factors. “What will make the difference is how reliably this power can be integrated at scale – through consistent open-access frameworks, stronger grid alignment, and wider use of hybrid solutions that better match continuous industrial demand,” Jain says.

The trajectory is clear: renewable energy in tyre manufacturing is transitioning from opportunistic adoption to structural integration. For developers such as CleanMax, the challenge – and opportunity – lies in engineering solutions that convert intermittent resources into dependable industrial infrastructure.

Wallace Instruments, a globally recognised leader in rubber testing equipment, has expanded its United Kingdom-manufactured specimen preparation lineup with the launch of the WAS3 Pneumatic Cutting Press. The new device joins the company’s range of rubber testing equipment.

Unlike manual cutting methods, pneumatic systems apply consistent force on every cycle, eliminating operator fatigue and variability. Poorly prepared specimens with uneven edges or internal stress can compromise test accuracy, while the pneumatic approach also reduces repetitive physical strain, supporting technician wellbeing during long production runs.

The WAS3 prioritises safe single-operator use through a two-button activation system requiring both buttons to be pressed within half a second, preventing any hand contact with the cutting area. Additional three-sided protective guards further enhance operational safety.

Delivering 15 kN of cutting force, the press easily cuts through 10-mm thick, 95 Shore A rubber sheet using five bar of filtered air pressure. It works with existing Wallace cutting dies, so laboratories can integrate the unit without replacing current tooling, and its compact footprint suits both lab and production environments.

Chris Norval, Managing Director, Wallace Instruments, said, "Specimen preparation is the foundation of accurate rubber testing. With the WAS3, we focused on practical safety, dependable cutting performance and drop-in compatibility. Labs get a compact pneumatic press that fits the air lines already in place, uses their current Wallace dies and delivers consistent results for every operator – because when specimen quality is controlled, you can have confidence in the results that follow."

DUNLOP (company name: Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd.) has teamed up with Fujitsu Limited to create an artificial intelligence (AI) surrogate model that predicts tyre performance rapidly and with high precision. The breakthrough was validated in a proof of concept tied to DUNLOP’s digital transformation strategy. When applied to tyre deformation upon road contact, the technology slashed analysis time by 90 percent, from 45 minutes to just 5 minutes while processing nearly 600,000 mesh elements.

Based on these results, both firms will build a design support tool, aiming for deployment at DUNLOP by April 2027. The system runs on FUJITSU MONAKA, a next-generation energy efficient Arm-based CPU.

Tyre design typically relies on finite element method (FEM) analysis, where finer mesh grids boost accuracy but increase calculation time and costs. To tackle this, the partners developed an AI surrogate model that solves FEM equations using past data. The model, based on the Graph Neural Network algorithm, predicted contact shape with 87.7 percent accuracy, enabling faster decisions and lower costs.

Select findings will be shared at the 31st Computational Engineering Conference starting 3 June 2026. By December 2026, both companies will test the model on a FUJITSU MONAKA prototype to refine speed and power use.

Under its long-term strategy R.I.S.E. 2035, DUNLOP seeks to provide new experiential value from rubber. Through this co creation, the tyre maker will enhance its analytical technologies and strengthen innovation. Fujitsu will promote this approach across large scale FEM analysis in automotive and other manufacturing sectors, contributing to carbon neutrality via an AI platform combining FUJITSU MONAKA and GNN.

Starrett-Bytewise has appointed GL Inspect GmbH as its new European sales representative. The German firm, led by Christian Lantzsch and based in Hargesheim, will oversee regional operations. The partnership aims to provide local expertise for demanding measurement challenges across tyre plants, steel mills and extrusion lines.

Lantzsch and the GL Inspect team bring a sophisticated understanding of non-contact metrology. Their technical background aligns with the diverse industrial sectors served by Starrett-Bytewise, ensuring that European customers receive support tailored to specific materials and production environments. The collaboration strengthens local technical knowledge and on-site application assistance.

Under this agreement, European customers gain direct access to local consultations and expanded on-site evaluations led by Lantzsch’s team. Laser measurement solutions can be better integrated into individual production lines. The partnership also streamlines communication and support, building on existing European infrastructure to enable seamless transitions to automated in-line inspection.

The appointment represents a significant investment in European infrastructure. Having GL Inspect on the ground shortens the distance between Starrett-Bytewise’s U.S. engineering team and local factory floors. Faster application assessments, more frequent site visits and industry-specific language support are key outcomes of the new arrangement.