Due to the development of compounding technology, there is a considerable increase in the number of high performance rubbers in the world. Accordingly, there are rapid growing requests about high performance tires such as UHP tire and Run-flat tire. However, it is extremely difficult to investigate the friction coefficient of tire tread rubbers. An alternative solution must be developed with the reliability of high-speed linear friction test machines. The use of friction test machines can be expected to improve rubber friction researches. In this paper, we propose a new kind of high-speed linear friction test machine. We have designed and manufactured various mechanisms for friction tests. The final goals are to design and manufacture friction test machines that can investigate friction coefficients efficiently and rapidly. The performance of the proposed high-speed linear friction test machine is evaluated experimentally; however additional study should be necessary for safer and more reliable experimentation.
