07
March
2003
|
10:00
Europe/Amsterdam

Pirelli: the first MIRS Moto factory

  • Pirelli presents the first MIRS automated factory destined for the production of motorcycle tyres.
  • MIRS Moto is a highly innovative production process guaranteeing the Pirelli brand performance of absolute excellence on the road and in racing too.
  • MIRS Moto process has produced the Diablo Corsa, a super sport tyre providing optimum performance on both road and track.
  • Production is now underway at Milan and Breuberg in Germany. An overall investment of 10 million euros.

Milan, 7th March 2003 - Pirelli today introduced the international press to the first motorcycle tyre production facility based on the revolutionary production process known as the MIRS - Modular Integrated Robotized System. Located in the Bicocca area of Milan, MIRS Moto now flanks the MIRS Vettura modules Pirelli Pneumatici operates directly from its headquarters as pilot plants destined to produce and test technology for the Pirelli Group's other MIRS factories. The fruit of an overall investment in excess of 10 million euros, MIRS Moto has already reached the start-up phase at Pirelli Pneumatici's German partner: the first MIRS module destined to produce 125,000 high performance radial motorcycle tyres per year is, in fact, now operational in the Breuberg factory. " The MIRS plant devoted to motorcycle tyres represents further progress for Pirelli's advanced research" , declares Pirelli SpA Managing Director, Giovanni Ferrario. " The objective of the MIRS Moto project is that of reinforcing the Pirelli brand's acknowledged leadership in the motorcycle segment, focussing on the most advanced sports products in order to ensure we enjoy a highly significant technological and competitive advantage. Thanks to the MIRS we have optimised the motorcycle tyre production process so as to offer our particularly demanding motorcycling clientele a product guaranteeing absolute levels of safety, reliability and extremely high performance." Great opportunities in Original Equipment The motorcycling field is one in which the potential of the MIRS process is particularly evident: compared with four-wheeled vehicles, the quality and reliability of the tyres mounted on motorcycles is particularly crucial in guaranteeing optimum conditions of safety and grip as well as maximum performance. The first product lines utilising the MIRS belong to the high-end Racing & Street range: the Diablo Corsa has already been homologated as original equipment on the Aprilia RSV 1000 R and is currently being homologated for the flagship bikes of other manufacturers. Tests have revealed among other qualities an excellent compromise between comfort and handling, establishing the Diablo Corsa as the motorcycle industry's new reference tyre: Aprilia's testers noted, in particular, " the uniformity of the thrust values at all lean angles, guaranteeing precise, balanced handling and notable grip under braking" . MIRS: revolutionary technology With the MIRS process Pirelli has completely revolutionised the traditional technology and methods used in the production of tyres. The new process is in fact based on the concept of the extremely flexible " mini-factory" (able to produce a single tyre per size) that is strategically locatable to meet the demands of the reference market. In a fully automated space of around 350 m2, robots manage the entire production cycle (at a speed unprecedented in this sector) in an uninterrupted sequence from the compounds to the finished tyres, with no semifinished products to be moved around and no intermediate storage phases. The MIRS robots are thus able to produce a tyre every three minutes. This throughput rate allows lead times to be reduced from some days of the traditional process to 72 minutes with the MIRS process. The absence of the storage phases means that the complete tyre production process can be concentrated within an extremely compact area, virtually eliminating the space required for the enormous quantities of materials and products that are normally circulating in the traditional process where at any one moment only 12% of the materials are actually being processes while the remaining 88% is in storage waiting to be introduced to the cycle. The technology employed in the MIRS radically changes the ways the tyre is made, reducing manufacturing operations from 14 to just three. The tyre is no longer assembled in discontinuous phases, but is built directly by the robots around a drum the machines pass from " mechanical hand" to " mechanical hand" , without stopping and with no need for manual intervention. Extruders progressively apply a layer of rubber reinforced with metal beads to the drum with a circumferential and axial movement. The final build robot sends the drum with the green tyre to the vulcanizing unit. This last is a veritable merry-go-round with six moulds that, rotating about its axis at a speed synchronised with the build time, allows the process to continue without interruptions during this phase too. The vulcanized tyre reaches the finishing department where the last phase of the process is undertaken: severe quality control with the assistance of laser sensors. Integration with the CCM unit As with the MIRS Car and Truck modules, the MIRS Moto module at Milano Bicocca is integrated with the innovative CCM system, a unique productive process representing an unprecedented technological breakthrough: in this area, in fact, the traditional mixing process lead time of around 24 hours, has been drastically reduced to just 4.7 hours. Energy consumption has been reduced by over 20% and the variability of the physical properties of the compound by 70%. The CCM process flow, organized on two continuous twin-screw extruders pneumatically fed with the various components, permits an uninterrupted process with no intermediate storage. Computerised management of the feed flows provides perfect control over the ingredients, chemical reactions, temperatures and mixing conditions. Moreover, it drastically reduces the production of dust, which in the Bicocca compound unit is contained below the 0.3 mg per cubic metre threshold against the EU normative limit of 10 mg per cubic metre. Inaugurated in June 2002 in the area adjacent to that occupied by the production robots, the CCM unit is the ideal complement to the MIRS in that it allows the complexity inherent in dealing with 40 components, from polymers to additives, from carbon black to sulphur through to silica, the presence and composition of which varies according to the type of tyre being produced, to be managed efficiently. Occupying an area of 800 square metres and representing an investment of 10 million euros, the CCM unit at Bicocca is capable of producing 250 kg per hour. Integrated software manages the various production phases: the machinery in the compound unit, the movements of the robots, the automatic supply of materials, the choice of tyre and therefore construction drum size, the vulcanization, the quality control and the despatch of the finished product. Furthermore, this programme is itself part of a global software package that, upstream of the manufacturing phase, presides over the initial design and engineering process. Starting out from the definition of the product specifications, this unique package automatically determines the design of the mould, the choice and selection of the materials and the design of the construction drum. The same software also defines the robots' path driver and manages their working cycles. MIRS Moto produces the Pirelli Diablo Corsa The MIRS production technology permits Pirelli to introduce the market (with immediate effect in the case of Original equipment clients) to the Diablo Corsa, a product offering absolutely innovative characteristics of performance, reliability and structural integrity. This radial tyre, designed for riders wishing to use their Supersport bikes on road and track and built by machines with an unprecedented degree of precision, redefines all existing product quality reference parameters. Allowing the construction of a one-piece seamless cover, the new production method provides users with a tyre with qualitative standards on a different plane to those obtained via the traditional process: absolute structural uniformity, no vibrations or imbalance and maximum comfort in road use. It was the uniformity guaranteed by the MIRS that permitted the Pirelli engineers to develop the unique mix of compounds that renders the tyre suitable for use on the track too: greater stability at high speed, exceptional grip and a shorter warm-up time. This combination of features is also due to a new bead structure (again thanks to the MIRS robots) that optimizes sidewall rigidity and thus ensures that an optimum contact patch is maintained. The MIRS Moto products are carachterized by the possibility of a very sharp contour bowing, that cannot be realized with a traditional technology and allows faster acceleration out of leans for an unbeliveable riding emotion. Available for track testing from late March, the Diablo Corsa is a product aimed at purist sports bikers looking for maximum lean angle precision and on-track grip levels that bear comparison with a slick: this is Pirelli's new " Racing & Street range. The Diablo Corsa will be available as original equipment on the crme de la crme of the Supersport segment such as the Aprilia RSV 1000, the Ducati 999R, the Yamaha YZF-R and the Honda CBR 600 RR, the 2002 World Supersport Champion. The most thrilling of challenges awaits MIRS process in the near future: the slick tyres for the World Superbike Championship. From the Bicocca robots to Martin's Ducati; testing is already underway.