Apollo Tyres gets NABL accreditation

Apollo Tyres on Monday said it has become the first tyre manufacturer in India to get the coveted accreditation from National Accreditation Board for Testing & Calibration Laboratories (NABL), for outdoor regulatory testing in India.

The major impediment to government’s plan of implementing Star Ratings, was the unavailability of adequate NABL accredited testing infrastructure in India.

NABL has now given the certificate of accreditation to Apollo Tyres Test Centre for ‘General Requirements for the Competence of Testing and Calibration Laboratories’ extended with the track tests of wet grip and coast-by noise for C1, C2 and C3 categories of tyres which are covered under the labelling programme.

Subsequent to its collaboration with Global Automotive Research Centre (GARC) to pioneer the indigenisation of tyre labelling and certification tests in India, Apollo Tyres has now been accredited with ISO/ IEC 17025 for the wet grip and coast-by noise tyre tests on the track.

This testing capability is linked to the Indian government’s plan to implement ‘Star Rating’ of tyres, in line with the Tyre Labelling regulation in Europe. This is with the objective to ensure safety, economic and environmental efficiency of road transport by promoting fuel-efficient and safe tyres with low noise levels, Apollo Tyres said in a statement.

A new Automotive Industry Standard, AIS 142, in line with UNECE R 117 is prepared. It comprises evaluation of tyres with regards to rolling sound emissions, adhesion on wet surfaces and rolling resistance, it said.

“Being the leaders in the Indian tyre industry, we would like to further the cause of testing the tyres and provide highest quality tyres to our customers across geographies. This facility will not only help us test the tyres for the Indian market, but also the ones that are exported, and need to meet the regulatory and labelling requirements,” Satish Sharma, President, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (APMEA), Apollo Tyres said.

He said meeting the UNECE R 117 standards in India is upping India’s self-sufficiency in tyre technology.

This additional capability has been made possible due to the continuous investment of Apollo Tyres in Research & Development (R&D), bringing the best-in-class testing machines and equipment, catalysed by the trust on their specialists’ acumen at the state-of-the-art Global R&D Centre, Asia.

Daniele Lorenzetti, Chief Technology Officer, Apollo Tyres said that the new testing capabilities, developed by Apollo Tyres, shows good level of accuracy and reliability, and the test results are well accepted by European Homologation authorities. Therefore, this will enable Apollo Tyres to reduce time to market its products, along with the reduction in testing costs.