Pirelli launches Eufori@ the first MIRS tyre is born

The revolutionary MIRS robotised tyre manufacturing technology permits the development of an innovative new Run Flat. First homologation from BMW for the new Mini Cooper.

Vizzola Ticino (Varese) October 2001 - Pirelli has announced that the first tyres to be produced by its revolutionary MIRS Modular Integrated Robotised System went on sale today.
The announcement came as the new Mini Cooper S was given its world preview and launch at the 35th Tokyo Motor Show. The Mini Cooper S is the world's first car to be homologated on the Pirelli Eufori@: the car is fitted with the new e-tyre in size 205/45 R 17 and is a Run Flat.

Following an extremely severe series of tests on the track and public roads, BMW chose to adopt Pirelli's e-tyres as original equipment in 17" size for the Mini Cooper, a sporting saloon to which the high performance MIRS Eufori@ tyres guarantee exceptional levels of safety and reliability, even in the harshest driving conditions.

This first homologation for Eufori@ is the final act in the birth of Pirelli MIRS tyres as industrial products, now available in the two sizes of 205/45 R 17 and 225/45 R 17. Built using the technology of the Modular Integrated Robotised System, the mini-factory managed completely on-line that is fully robotised and flexible, the MIRS e-tyres are of totally innovative performance, reliability and comfort characteristics: and they are of a level of quality it is difficult to compare with the already high standards of those made using the traditional production process.

Eurfori@ is the name selected by the greatest number of over 30,000 voters who participated in the international competition organised by Pirelli on the Internet to baptise its tyres of the Third Millennium: a strong and positive name that successfully evokes the enthusiasm and driving pleasure enjoyed by the motorists of today who use high performance tyres.

Eufori@: the Pirelli Run Flat innovation

The Pirelli Eufori@ homologated for the Mini Cooper S is also the Group's first Run Flat, which enables a tyre to function even at zero pressure.

The Pirelli Run Flat is a development that will revolutionise not only the way the car is used but also the way it is made. If the absence of the spare wheel is a major opportunity for supersport car designers and developers, the elimination of the risk of a puncture will

be a real destroyer of nightmares for most women drivers - and certainly a huge personal safety factor of advantage to all motorists.
That is because the Pirelli Eufori@ Run Flat enables a motorist to drive over 150 kilometres at zero pressure at speeds of up to 80 km/h in perfect safety.

This major achievement in driving safety and reliability that has eluded the tyre industry for decades has been accomplished by Pirelli, thanks to its new MIRS tyre production technology. Since its early development stages, MIRS has been seen as a means of facilitating and rendering the construction of a Run Flat tyre more competitive from the cost point of view: a fairly problematical operation if carried out using the traditional tyre making process. Because of the extreme flexibility of the MIRS system during all phases of the production process, Pirelli's technicians have been able to integrate self-supporting sidewalls perfectly into the Eufori@ structure without penalising any aspect of performance required by any of the other areas of the tyre. Contrary to other Total Mobility developments, the increase in the Pirelli Eufori@ Run Flat's weight - and, therefore, the stress it places on a car's suspension and chassis - is minimal.

In the case of the tyre's loss of air pressure after a puncture or accidental damage, a pressure sensor in the tyre-retaining rim of the Eufori@ Run Flat advises the driver of the problem in the cockpit in good time through the central processing unit.
The Eufori@ Run Flat technology and its self-supporting sidewall further underline the validity of the road Pirelli has taken in the development of Total Mobility, which today is able to offer solutions tailored to suit different needs of the market and the car manufacturers.

The MIRS production process

With MIRS, Pirelli has literally revolutionised to the full traditional technology and methodology of tyre production. The new process is based on the highly flexible 'production module' system that can, if necessary, produce one single tyre in one size and can be set up strategically on territory in line with the needs of the market for which it must produce.

A robotised MIRS factory can be accommodated in about 350 square metres. At a speed without precedent, the MIRS robots carry out the full tyre production cycle, without interruption and without the need to move semi-manufactured components, intermediate storage or energy wastage. The MIRS can make a new tyre every three minutes, which reduces the average production transit time of rubber and components from the raw materials store to the finished product warehouse to 72 minutes instead of the six days of the traditional process.

Integrated software manages all production phases - the movement of the robots, the automatic re-supply of materials, the selection of the tyre size and, therefore, the building drum, tyre building, vulcanisation, quality control and the movement of the finished product. And that is not all: this procedure is, in turn, part of a global software programme that takes place before manufacturing, extending right through to the initial

design stage. MIRS is a single architecture that, from the definition of product specifics, automatically determines the design of the mould, the choice of materials, the design of the building drum. The same software also defines the 'path driver' of the MIRS robots and manages them as they execute their work cycles.

This innovative production and product technology enables Pirelli to offer the market tyres of radically new concept as far as their structural composition is concerned. The elimination of discontinuation factors permits the redefinition of the product's qualitative reference parameters from the moment each discontinuation or human intervention constitutes the theoretical possibility of product deformation, through to thermal oscillations of semi-manufactured components on the move and in storage, the presence of building joints to inhomogeneous thermal distribution during the vulcanisation.

The tyres fitted to the Mini Cooper were made at the Pirelli's MIRS plant in Breuberg, Germany, the construction of which was started at the end of 2000 and in which two of the planned 13 models are already in operation. When fully operational, the Breuberg installation will produce two million MIRS tyres a year.