R&D
In Pirelli, “Premium” means cutting-edge technology coupled with product excellence.
A leading Tyre Company, Pirelli can rely upon:
- its 40-year experience in the Premium Segment;
- its numerous Original Equipment (OE) partnerships with the major German Premium Car Makers, developed through Pirelli R&D Centre in Germany;
- an R&D budget totally devoted to the Premium Segment and among the highest in the Industry: 7% of Premium sales in 2012;
- 1,200 full-time researchers globally plus another 1,200 people working at ‘open innovation’ projects in Universities’ and Car Manufacturers’ Research Centres.
Pirelli has agreements with 14 University Centres around the world, numerous joint research projects with Suppliers’ and Universities’ Research Centres and over 100 OE Partnerships with Premium Car Manufacturers.
Over 150 projects under way on innovative materials, processes and software.
With the aim of becoming “Global Premium Leader” and ensuring an unprecedented expansion of its product range, Pirelli is focusing on:
- the strength of its Research Network, where Regional Centres are fully integrated with the R&D Centre in Milan;
- leadership in innovative materials, through the study of polymers, fillers and chemicals;
- leadership in green materials, through research into biomaterials (rice silica, natural rubber from sources other than the rubber tree) and recycling.
- a state-of-the-art modeling, which, through simulation, will allow a further reduction in the ‘time-to-market’ and boost research projects, increasing their performance and meeting the highest needs;
- development of flexible and efficient manufacturing processes, like the new generation of MIRS, a robotic process exclusive to Pirelli, and the extension of the PTSM process, which is the evolution of Continuous Compound Mixing (CCM) system;
- Tyre electronics, like the microchip incorporated in the Cyber Tyre*, that identifies road conditions and relays important information to the vehicle.
* see Cyber Tyre tab
Consolidation of product excellence will result into further improvements of rolling resistance, weight reduction, higher performance per kilometre, higher braking power on wet and dry surfaces, lower CO2 emissions and longer life.
Furthermore, the better use of all these levers in Tyre manufacturing (materials, processes, construction, modeling) will not only allow the improvement of product performance, but also increase efficiency, with estimated savings of 75 million euro between 2012 and 2014.