Michelin takes a fresh look at road safety with Primacy 3
When Michelin launches its Primacy 3 into European replacement markets in February 2012 the tyre will, the manufacturer states, open a “whole new era in road safety.” What Michelin means when making this assertion is that its successor to the Primacy HP has been developed based on research and behavioural analyses that revealed a number of unexpected safety-related facts. By taking a fresh look at accidentology – the study of accidents – Michelin says it has been able to move beyond preconceived safety ideas and provide road users with meaningful solutions.
According to Vincent Rousset-Rouviere, chief operating officer for Michelin’s Passenger Cars & Light Trucks Replacement Europe division, safety is the stated top priority in every tyre Michelin designs – the company refers to safety as its core business and actively pursues this theme in its product development, public awareness campaigns and joint work with governments and organisations. Michelin also believes some existing views on road hazards are flawed.
During the new tyre’s official launch in Spain, Rousset-Rouviere shared that in developing the Primacy 3, the tyre maker drew upon information gained by the VUFO (traffic accident research department) at the Technical University of Dresden in Germany; this information deals with 20,000 road accidents that have taken place in a fifty to sixty kilometre radius of Dresden since 1999.
“We get information from Police and rescue services and are at the accident site quickly,” explains the VUFO’s Dr. Lars Hannawald. “We record every detail linked to accidentology, incuding weather conditions and, of course, tyres.”
This information is then “mapped” to determine accident types, and when analysing the 68 million pieces of information gleaned from the 20,000 separate accidents a number of interesting statistics emerged: Contrary to many assumptions, some 70 per cent of accidents occur on dry roads and 60 per cent happen in cities and at low speeds. Only a quarter of accidents occur during cornering (half of these on wet roads) yet this is the most serious type of accident. “Some people have false ideas about road safety,” Hannawald comments. “Even tyre manufacturers tend to limit talk of accidents to wet conditions, yet 70 percent happen when it is dry.”
Development – 3 years and 25,000 tyres
Armed with the knowledge gained through the VUFO study, a team of 60 Michelin engineers spent three years transferring theory to practice while designing the Primacy 3. Nearly 25,000 prototype and pre-industrial tyres were produced at the company’s Ladoux Technology Center in France and in a number of Michelin factories to validate the new product’s technical performance and manufacturing processes.
Then Michelin carried out more than 20 million kilometres of testing across Europe to evaluate the Primacy 3 in the varied conditions motorists encounter. “The tyres have covered the equivalent of circling the globe many times,” Rousset-Rouviere notes. “They’ve been tested everywhere, in every condition and at every speed consumers will encounter.”
The result of this development and testing is, reports Michelin, a tyre that beats its four market-leading competitors in terms of braking on dry and wet surfaces and when cornering on wet roads. In making this claim, Michelin shares that earlier this year it handed examples of the Primacy 3 over to two independent testing organisations, TÜV SÜD Automotive and IDIADA. Both organisations tested the Michelin tyre and comparable products from Michelin’s four leading competitors in sizes 205/55 R 16V and 225/45 R 17W.
“During testing, the Primacy 3’s reported dry road stopping distance from 100km/h was 2.2 metres shorter than its competitors – an important result, given that 70 per cent of accidents happen on dry surfaces,” comments Ralph Dimenna, Michelin’s vice-president, Technical Operations, Worldwide Original Equipment Passenger and Light Truck Product Line. “When decelerating from 80km/h on a wet road, the Primacy 3-equipped vehicle’s braking distance was 1.5 metres less than the competition. And when cornering on a wet road at 90km/h, the Primacy 3 was found to deliver additional grip equal to 3km/h.”
The compound and tread design utilised in the Primacy 3 play an important part in providing the grip necessary to achieve such results, Michelin comments. It describes the patented compound used in the tyre as being a complex combination of different elastomers (Ralph Dimenna reports that “not less than three” elastomers have gone into the new tyre), a silica-based reinforcing agent and a resin-based softener. These ingredients are said to go into the compound at the “optimal dosage” and mixed in a way that binds them very tightly, a quality important to both grip and mileage.
As for the tread design, Michelin says that a noteworthy feature is the siping. The sipes found on the Primacy 3 are incredibly thin; Michelin claims to have used a groundbreaking technology to reduce sipe thickness to two-tenths of a millimetre, or two to three times thinner than the sipes found on winter tyres. These self-blocking sipes are designed to lock into each other to make the blocks more rigid and less likely to lose their shape, thereby improving contact between the tyre and the road.
Up to 70 litres fuel saved
It must be emphasised that safety was not the sole design focus for the Primacy 3. Michelin is well-known for its public awareness campaigns aimed at reducing unnecessary fuel consumption, and the French manufacturer says its engineering teams were assigned a strategic priority of developing a product capable of delivering superior performance simultaneously in different areas, or in other words, delivering safety without sacrificing fuel consumption and longevity. The aforementioned TÜV Süd tests showed that the Primacy 3 is capable of saving up to 70 litres of fuel over the tyre’s life while offering high total mileage. The new tyre’s mileage is said to be on the same level as its predecessor, the Primacy HP.
When asked about how the Primacy 3 is expected to perform in the upcoming European tyre label, Ralph Dimenna notes that the criteria for the label is not yet complete, however he says Michelin “is confident the Primacy 3 will be best in class.” At any rate, Michelin’s view is that the label only highlights three of a number of important tyre characteristics. As Vincent Rousset-Rouviere explains, Michelin’s aim was to achieve a ‘balance of performance’ in the Primacy 3, in which safety, longevity and fuel saving qualities were each a focus without compromising the other characteristics: “We not only managed this, we made improvements,” he comments. “Achieving this balance of performance is the real challenge for us.”
Michelin states that leading vehicle manufacturers are currently carrying out 30 technical tests to facilitate Primacy 3 homologation on 20 new vehicles scheduled for launch in 2011 and 2012. Ralph Dimenna shares that Volvo and Renault have already approved the Primacy 3 for original equipment fitment, and a further eight to ten approvals are expected before the end of the year. An initial range of 38 dimensions for 15 to 18-inch rim diameters and H to W speed ratings is also scheduled for introduction into the replacement market early next year. More than 30 of these fitments are for 16 and 17-inch rims, a market segment where Michelin anticipates a 25 per cent rise in demand in the next few years.
Prices will be comparable to predecessor tyre the Primacy HP, Vincent Rousset-Rouviere reports. Further down the track, the Primacy 3 will be also launched in some other global markets, such as South America. A Primacy 3 variant is also being prepared for the Chinese replacement market and will be released there about a year after the tyre’s European launch.
Related news:
- Michelin announces 2012 additions to motorcycle track portfolio
- Premium tyre sales on the up?
- Michelin still top online brand, but the gap’s narrowing
- Michelin Pilot Super Sport is “Fastest Ever Series Produced Tyre”
- Michelin Launches New Pilot Super Sport Tyre
Comments