Tyre industry pioneers, Michelin has a long history. Having begun in 1889, Michelin is now the second-largest tyre manufacturer in the world after Bridgestone and larger than both Goodyear and Contineantal.
A replacement for the Michelin Pilot Activ will begin arriving at dealers in January. Michelin says this new tyre, the Michelin Road Classic, combines an “attractive retro tread design with the latest materials and technologies.” The Road Classic line-up includes nine front tyre sizes and ten rear sizes.
Michelin has introduced two new sizes of its multi-purpose, all-season CrossGrip tyres for operators of backhoe loaders, skid steer loaders, telehandlers and small tractors. The new 440/80 R34 and 480/80 R34 CrossGrip fitments expand the range to 12 dimensions, available on both the original equipment and replacement markets.
Throughout 2020 Tyres & Accessories has been analysing the tyre choices of UK emergency services fleets. The series began with an investigation into the National Police fleet’s tyre demands, followed by closer looks at the Kent, Metropolitan and West Midland force fleets. At the start of November, we took a look at some key Fire Brigade fleets. Now it is the turn of the Ambulance service.
Six minutes, 48.047 seconds. This is the new record lap time for a series production car around the 20.832-kilometre Nürburgring Nordschleife loop. The car was a 730hp Mercedes-AMG GT Black Series, the tyres Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R.
The Acorus wheel, which Michelin and Maxion Wheels first presented as a prototype at the IAA 2017 motor show in Frankfurt, is coming to market next year. Michelin announced the flexible wheel solution’s commercial launch at the China International Import Expo (CIIE), which opened in Shanghai on 4 November.
Anish K. Taneja has been appointed president of the German Rubber Manufacturers Association (wdk). The chief executive officer of Michelin’s Europe North Region was named successor to Dr Ralf Holschumacher earlier today. Holschumacher has served as wdk president since 2014.
Recycled plastics will become a raw material within new tyres in future. This is a key intended application of a technology that the Michelin Group is exploring under a new joint development agreement with Canadian firm Pyrowave. Michelin ultimately intends to invest more than 20 million euros in the joint development agreement and combine its industrial know-how with Pyrowave’s expertise.
In addition to appointing a managing director for its business in Austria, Michelin has named Albrecht von Leonhardi managing director of Michelin Suisse SA, effective 1 November. He comes to this role from Michelin Solutions, where he was commercial director for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, a position he’d held since mid-2017.
Michelin has reorganised its sales team in Austria and appointed Roland Steinberger managing director of its business in that market. Steinberger began in the role on 1 November, continuing a tyre industry career spanning more than two decades, including eight years at Michelin. His previous role with the tyre maker was sales manager for its car tyre business within Austria.
With the inauguration of a new plant dedicated to the production of agricultural tracks, Michelin aims to solidify its Camso subsidiary’s leadership within the North American agricultural market. The 13,000 square metre (140,000 square foot) plant in Junction City, Kansas is Camso’s seventh manufacturing facility in the region.
The Michelin Group aims for complete carbon neutrality by 2050, and it seems that every little helps. The tyre maker’s efforts even extend to its communications, and so it was that when sharing news of a new product’s impending launch, Michelin encouraged invitees to take their ‘first eco-action’ by spurning e-mail contact in favour of text messages. It explained that this form of communication’s carbon footprint was 0.00125g, some 200 times smaller than that of an e-mail. I did not know that.
Farrall’s Group is moving its entire fleet of 65 trucks and 100 trailers onto a Michelin tyre policy. The decision follows a trial organised by local Michelin advocate dealer Quinton Tyres, which demonstrated the sustainability advantages of the Michelin product. The company used to run a mix of competitor brands but will now switch to Michelin.
An arable farm in Ireland is reporting “significant improvements” to its soil health since moving its tractor fleet onto Michelin Ultraflex technology tyres. Coolcroo Farm, in Tipperary, used to run a mix of competitor brands but switched to Michelin following technical advice from local account manager Christopher Eakin.
It is often said that this is the busiest week of the year for the nation’s firefighters. While 5 November 2020 looks likely to be an outlier in this regard thanks to the new national restrictions to counter rising Covid-19 infections, there’s no more appropriate time of year to follow up our previous looks at the tyre demands of police forces with a similar analysis of the fire service. T&A made Freedom of Information requests to the largest, by number of full-time firefighters, UK fire services earlier in 2020, asking for such data as: tyres bought and replaced, the fleet size and vehicle parc, minimum tread depth at change, and whether tyres were regrooved and/or retreaded. The latter is probably the easiest question to answer, as eight fire services told T&A that they do not retread their tyres versus zero who do.
The corona crisis may have compelled Michelin to present its latest tyre range via an online launch, but a low-carbon virtual format was also a good fit for the tyre’s environmental ambitions. For the Michelin e.Primacy is not only a successor to the Energy Saver; it also represents a new approach to tyre development at Michelin and is also the first tyre to be released with an Environmental Product Declaration.
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Coolcroo Farm; Michelin
Fallschirmjäger