Hankook Tire showed “tangible results” in its efforts to develop a Virtual Compound Design (VCD) system, a predictive model for tire compound properties using artificial intelligence, the company said.

VCD system uses technology that predicts the characteristics of compounds and draws the most optimal combination of the materials through artificial intelligence analysis, which is based on accumulated data without actual testing during the tire compound development.

Generally, it takes six months to three years to develop a new compound, but this period is expected to be reduced by 50% if artificial intelligence is used, Hankook says.

The new development system operates within the cloud platform by creating a “Digital Twin,” a twin of real-life objects, repeating the process of reflecting results derived from virtual simulations into reality and affecting each other over reality and virtual reality to find improved results, Hankook says.

After Hankook signed an agreement with Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) early this year on research on future technologies, cooperation was undertaken on the project. Since then, the accuracy of data analysis has been greatly improved, currently showing an increased reliability of more than 95%, the company says.

Hankook Tire is planning to expand the technology to the entire process of developing tires that range from material selection, design, tire test, production including mass production. In addition, the company plans to accelerate the introduction of data-based innovative technologies based on accumulated data throughout the tire industry ecosystem, ranging from materials supply and demand, design, R&D, testing, production, distribution (SCM), and customer usage, without limitations on certain development areas.

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