Pirelli re-launches in giant tyres

• From MIRS™ technology the FH85 Amaranto is born: the new colour of Pirelli high performance. Comfort, mileage and safety are its qualities.
• Francesco Gori, Managing Director of Pirelli Tyres: "The MIRS™ production process has entered a new phase of "cross-fertilisation". After car tyres and motorcycle radials, the MIRS™ concept is applied today to tyres for industrial vehicles, an important new result of Pirelli's advanced research".

Naples, 16 april 2004 - Pirelli's strategy in the Tyres business is founded on the continuous innovation of the product, in order to provide an effective answer to a market in vigorous evolution, which today makes one precise demand of tyre manufacturers: global performance. And as a consequence of its systematic commitment of resources and research and development to truck tyres, Pirelli is able to announce the launch of the new generation Pirelli FH85 Amaranto, born of the application of second generation MIRS™ technology.

"The Pirelli Amaranto results from a phase of "cross-fertilisation" of technology of the MIRS™ process", says Francesco Gori, Managing Director of the Pirelli Tyre Sector. "The concept of automation of the revolutionary MIRS™ production process, which was developed to start with run flat car tyres and was then extended to motorcycle radials, finds here its next logical extension: its application to tyres for industrial vehicles. We have always maintained that MIRS™ is not just a robot, but a concept. The system has now spread throughout the Pirelli world, from the pilot plant at Bicocca, Milan , to the industrial installations in Germany , Great Britain and on to our brand new factory in Atlanta in the United States .

"We have transferred all the innovative potential represented by the heart of MIRS™ to the production of tyres for industrial vehicles: this spin-off, this 'cross-fertilisation' is found today in technological solutions that once again stem from the advanced research conducted by Pirelli Tyres in its laboratories all over the world. We have called it SSD, the Spiral Strip Deposition system".

The Pirelli FH85 Amaranto represents the maximum synthesis of the qualities that are demanded today of a high performance tyre for grand touring buses and heavy vehicles used for long range transportation: economy of use, structural uniformity, ease of driving, structural and acoustic comfort and safety in every driving condition.

The Amaranto blends the SATT™-Spiral Advanced Technology for Truck, which means the spiralling technological process has been used to produce various of its components (the tread, zero degree 'bandage', bead wire) permitting the elimination of joints, with the consequent improvement in terms of uniformity and driving comfort. Technological developments that Pirelli has derived from the experience it has gathered over the last three years of MIRS™ production and that enable it to offer the market a product which is comfortable, progressive and of maximum driving precision.

The conjunction with advanced developments in structure - also possible due to the latest innovations in the areas of materials, compounds and steel cord - have led to the definition of the new product technology (SATT™) with which Pirelli wants to identify High Performance in Truck. These are technical solutions of elevated qualitative standards, which provide immediate satisfaction to the end user and are also of interest to the remoulder.

FH85 Amaranto: the magic of steel and rubber
The bead is the part of the tyre that marries itself to the rim and must resist slippage, remaining firmly in place without moving from its seating. The Amaranto does this by means of special, patented bead wire in steel foil, which permits greater ease of fitment to the rim and less deformation, so ensuring higher mileage, even after the carcass has been remoulded.

The new belt structure, achieved with reinforcement materials developed ad hoc for this application, contributes to providing good driving comfort, while at the same time guaranteeing optimum resistance to phenomena such as oxidisation/corrosion, with consequent advantages for the remoulding process.

The rubber: this has been developed for the Amaranto so as to combine itself in the best possible way with the tyre's steel, always maintaining its original physio-chemical characteristics to help the remoulder in his work. The tread compound is also of a high quality standard, able to guarantee low hysteresis (dry grip) without penalising roadholding in the wet or even wear.

In its "front" directional configuration, FH85 Amaranto has a tread pattern that meets European directive 2001/43/CE, which requires a noise level inferior to 76 db. To that is added ECE54/INMETRO/FMVSS 119 (DOT) certification, which testifies to the conformity of the product to the more severe European norms.

The tread pattern has four straight grooves to ensure low severity of wear, essential to grand touring buses and heavy vehicles, which are habitually driven on motorway networks. The tyre tread's dense siping guarantees outstanding wet grip and even wear and the "small steps" in the central channels avoid the unpleasant phenomenon of stone capture.

Pirelli MIRS™ : the "cross fertilisation"
With MIRS™, Pirelli has totally changed the technology and traditional methodology of tyre production. The process is based on a "mini factory" concept of extremely high flexibility, a unit that can be set up on the spot to meet the needs of any reference market.

Integrated software manages all the MIRS™ stages of production: movement of the automatic machines, the automatic re-supply of materials, the selection of tyre size, the construction of the tyre, vulcanisation, quality control and movement of the finished product. This programme is, in turn, part of a global software, which, as well as the manufacturing phase, runs the engineering process from the initial design stage, including the management of the compound room.

The MIRS™ process technology has radically changed the means by which a tyre is made, reducing the stages of production from a traditional 14 to just three. This innovative new process and product technology has enabled Pirelli to offer the market a radically new product concept in its structural composition; a tyre of totally innovative characteristics in the areas of performance, reliability and comfort.

Intimately linked to the MIRS™ system is the CCM (Continuous Compound Mixing) room, a unique compound production process worldwide, which is able to ensure a quantitative control of materials at an unprecedented level of precision. Continuous Compound Mixing represents an authentic technological breakthrough: just consider that the lead time, which is about 24 hours' duration in the traditional mixing process, is slashed drastically to 4.7 hours. The CCM system permits the management of the complex data concerning the 40 components of the compound, the presence and composition of which varies in relation to the type of tyre to be produced.

With the creation of the CCM, an end result has been achieved that was the objective of the MIRS™ process right from its conception: to invent a completely autonomous and flexible system, able to produce tyres by a continuous and integrated process.

As of today, the Pirelli MIRS™ project has taken another step forward with the Amaranto: it is the phase of "cross-fertilisation".

The Pirelli Truck Business Unit: double figure growth

• Almost 900 million turnover in 2003 by the "Industrial" Business Unit. The growth trend in truck tyres has been 16% over the last three years.
• "We forecast investments totalling 100 million, which will permit us to increase production capacity over three years", said Alberto Pirelli, Director of the Truck Business Unit. "Our production centres in Europe , South America and Africa have systematically increased their output during the last three years, tripling the results of the Business Unit.

Naples 16 April 2004 - In 2003, the Pirelli Truck Tyre Business Unit achieved a turnover of more than 870 million, an increase in volume of 9% on the previous year. And during the last three years, the Unit's growth trend has exceeded 16%.

Faced with a competitive scenario characterised by increased raw materials costs and a negative exchange rate differential, in 2003 Pirelli continued to expand its sales and strengthen its market share.

The Truck Business Unit continues to play a strategic role in the Group, not only in terms of its relative weight - 29% of total Tyre Sector sales in 2003 were in the "Industrial" market - but also as a fundamental axis in the tyre operation's development.

"We have planned investments totalling 100 million in three years, destined to increase our production capacity", says Alberto Pirelli, Director of the Truck Business Unit. "Already substantial in Europe and Latin America , we recently consolidated our presence in Egypt , where production is slated both for the promising North African/Middle East market and for Europe . The next step will be further reinforcement in the markets of the greatest growth".

With a potential in excess of 100 million units a year, the global market for truck tyres sees the replacement channel accounting for over 85% of sales and original equipment around 15%. More than two thirds of sales are now of radial ply tyres, with an approximate 30% reduction in the "conventional" share. Sub-divided by geographical area, Asia - with China in the front line - accounts for more than 40% of the total, followed by Europe (21%), the Americas (30%) and Africa/Middle East around 9%. Against this backdrop, Pirelli Truck business comes in with half its sales in the American continent and half in Europe , Africa and the Middle East : all within the logic of a global process of technological and qualitative growth, which privileges markets where "radialisation" has been completed.

The Pirelli Truck Business Unit has an optimum product manufacturing set-up in terms of allocation, with 20% of production in Italy and the remaining 80% in countries of high market growth, such as Brazil , Turkey and Egypt . "Thanks to the enactment of an industrial rationalisation and investment programme and the application of sophisticated systems of factory automation," explains Alberto Pirelli, Director of the Pirelli Truck Business Unit, "Pirelli production centres specialising in truck tyres have globally increased their output by over 16% in three years. All plants that have achieved quality certification are accredited with ISO 9002 and are managed by the TPM system. In respect of the diverse production vocations, we can say we have reached an optimum integration of the different requirements. Production investments, privileging high growth markets and the renewal of the product range: the Truck business has tripled its results during the last three years".

Italy, Turkey, Brazil, Egypt : the Pirelli Truck production centres Settimo Torinese in Italy , Izmit in Turkey , Santo Andr in Brazil , Alexandria in Egypt : these are the four Pirelli Truck Business Unit production centres in the world. A production level of over 3.5 million tyres a year, about 4,000 employees.

Settimo Torinese Italy : "phase two" of MIRS™ begins here
Established in the Eighties, the Pirelli Industrial Vehicle tyre factory at Settimo Torinese is an absolute technological nerve centre, its work destined for tyres ranging from /80 to /55 Series for the European market. The new Amaranto is produced at Settimo, where the application of MIRS™ SATT™ - Spiral Applied Technology for Truck - has also begun.

SATT defines a new process/product technology, which takes from the global MIRS™ concept all that is immediately and modularly necessary for its own specific purposes: in the case of truck tyres, those logical passages have an impact on the fundamental aspects of quality and uniformity of the product.

Izmit , Turkey : award-winning quality

It is in Turkey that the other important Pirelli Truck all-steel radial ply production centre operates in Europe . The Izmit factory is about 100 kilometres from Istanbul and was opened in 1989. The recent beneficiary of an important investment programme for the expansion of production and the introduction of new technology, the Izmit plant has adopted TPM quality standards. This led it to becoming the first recipient of the TPM Award of Excellence and, later, the Certificate of Achievement, conferred on it by the Turkish association of vehicle manufacturers, OSD. Today, Izmit is the Pirelli factory that, perhaps, stands out more than any other for its flexibility and completeness in terms of product mix.

Santo Andr , Brazil : the potential of Latin America

Santo Andr, in the Brazilian state of San Paolo, is the location of the Pirelli production centre leading the radialisation process now taking place in the South American market. Established in a distant 1940, the Santo Andr factory, which is also the home of one of Pirelli Tyres' R& D centres, has attained ISO 9001 quality certification. With its output and mix, the Brazilian plant supplies the Central and South American areas, including Argentina and Brazil where Pirelli is the market leader.

The Brazilian industrial development plan allows for the large-scale transfer of SATT technology to the Santo Andr plant, which will result in both the unification of production process platforms across the world and the establishment of the most advanced product technologies.

Alexandria , Egypt : a bridgehead to North Africa and the Middle East

Pirelli Tires Alexandria was born of the Sector's acquisition of the Alexandria Tire Company (ATCO), the Egyptian market leader specialised in the production of all-steel radials for trucks and buses. Created in the early Nineties as a joint venture between Pirelli and local operators, ATCO inaugurated its Amreya factory near Alexandria in 1995, asserting itself in every way as one of the major competitors on the African continent and in the Middle East .

Since its establishment, Pirelli has built into the Alexandria factory its most advanced technology and best know-how: today, the Amreya plant is a production unit equal to the technological excellence of the other Pirelli manufacturing units in the world. It is to further strengthen its presence on the African continent and in the Middle East - extremely important markets for the giant tyre sector - that Pirelli has worked for the expansion of the range of products.

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