The quality of asphalt paving has improved significantly in Brazil, thanks to new techniques and materials used in laying down the layers of urban roads, freeways and airports. Moreover, the automotive and aircraft industries produce ever more stable, fast, silent and safe models, while the tire industry develops models that offer better adherence for a variety of routine situations. The combination of these factors – comfortable road surfaces, stable vehicles and adhering tires – induce drivers to travel at increasingly high speeds, often causing accidents to occur if any of these or a combination of these factors fails to keep the vehicle safe.

It is therefore important to know the adherence, the irregularities and the noise that is generated by the interaction of tires with the surface of a given paved surface. To ensure the safety, comfort and silence of a paved surface, IPT performs field and laboratory tests and offers technological solutions for these new challenges. It also performs tests and recommends techniques for new pavements, following up on their execution and monitoring their post-execution performance. These tests and evaluations allow indices to be calculated, which are used for quantifying and qualifying the state of road surfaces, such the IFI (International Friction Index), IRI (International Roughness Index) and the IQ (Irregularity Quotient), among others.