
Tyre manufacturing and recycling
Tyre manufacturing and recycling
Tyres: four rubber rings that can take you thousands of kilometers, carry heavy loads and run on rocky, wet, snowy or icy roads. How are tyres made? How does tyre recycling factor into our manufacturing process? Find the answers in this article.
For the manufacture of our tyres, we start with more than 200 raw materials, taking care to use more and more sustainable materials.
From these raw materials, the first step is to make materials with very specific mechanical and chemical properties. It is these properties that enable us to achieve good performance. In particular: good grip, good strength and good sustainability.
From these materials, we then design the composite product with two objectives:
1 - To minimise the amount of material used
Because the less material we use, the more we limit the impact of the tyre during its entyre lifecycle.
2 - Obtain maximum performance
The design of our tyres consists of assembling these materials in the most judicious way possible to make them work at their best intrinsic performance.
While aiming at performance, our industrial production system is organised in such a way as to :
Our industrial process allows us to reproduce products identically on an international scale. Thus, a MICHELIN tyre has exactly the same level of performance whether it is manufactured in the United States, China or Europe.
1- Understanding through research
We study peoples' tyre usage and driving habits to make sure our tyres meet everyone's needs.
2- Developing and mixing materials
Over 200 ingredients go into a tyre. They play vital roles in safety, fuel efficiency, performance and eco-friendliness. Their percentage varies according to the type of tyre to be manufactured.
These components fall into five groups:
3- Designing
We use simulations to test and select the best tyre concepts to be developed. The difficulty lies in minimising the amount of material to meet the performance criteria. These simulations allow us to predict the performance which will then be confirmed by tests.
4- Manufacturing
We manufacture and reproduce each tyre in the most optimised designs possible with an optimum level of performance for both the product and the economic aspect.
5- Quality control
Quality control is not an end step. We measure quality throughout the entyre process.
Quality must be respected at every stage: design, manufacturing and distribution
The typical radial tyre consists of nine main parts.
1- Inner liner:
An airtight layer of synthetic rubber to ensure airtightness.
2- Carcass Ply:
The layer above the inner liner, consisting of thin textile fiber cords (or cables) bonded into the rubber.
3- Lower bead area:
This is where the rubber tyre grips the metal rim. The power from the engine and braking effort is transmitted from the rim of the tyre to the contact area with the road's surface.
4. Beads:
They clamp firmly against the tyre’s rim to ensure an airtight fit and keep the tyre properly seated on the rim.
5- Sidewall:
It protects the side of the tyre from impact with curbs and the road and also features the specific MICHELIN design. Important details about the tyre are written on the sidewall, such as tyre size and speed rating.
6- Casing ply:
It largely determines the strength of the tyre. It's made up of very fine, resistant steel cords bonded into the rubber. It's also flexible enough to absorb deformations caused by bumps, potholes and other obstacles in the road.
7- Cap ply (or "zero degree" belt):
This important safety layer helps maintain the shape of the tyre when driving fast. To prevent centrifugal stretching of the tyre, reinforced nylon based cords are embedded in a layer of rubber and placed around the circumference of the tyre.
8- Crown Plies (or belts):
They provide the rigid base for the tread.
9- Tread:
This is the part that is in contact with the road. It provides traction and turning grip for the tyre and is designed to resist wear, abrasion and heat. Its sculpture is designed for very precise functions (grip, water evacuation, etc.) and also includes a design dimension specific to Michelin.
During the initial design phase, the global impact of the tyre is taken into account to minimize it, including raw materials, manufacturing, transport, usage and end-of-life. Each step is carefully analysed to improve the global impact.
As we will explain here, the environmental impact is taken into account in the manufacture of our tyres, and this under different aspects, not only that of tyre recycling.
A tyre is capable of withstanding enormous stresses. Indeed, the 35 kg of tyres fitted to a vehicle can carry 2.5 tons over several tens of thousands of kilometres in sometimes extreme weather conditions ranging from -20°C to over 40°C.
In order to achieve this performance and at the same time protect the environment, we use a minimum amount of material to manufacture our tyres.
How is limiting material beneficial to the environment?
MICHELIN tyres are designed to perform until the last kilometer, i.e. until the legal wear indicators are reached.
Our know-how allows us to ensure an excellent level of performance until this limit is reached, thus avoiding premature tyre replacement.
By using our tyres up to this limit instead of replacing them too early, you reduce the environmental impact while saving money and keeping your tyres performing well.
Our tyres show the position of the wear indicators with little Michelin Man markings, making it easier to check the level of tyre wear.
But our thinking on limiting environmental impact goes beyond simply limiting raw materials and tyre longevity. It also leads us to explore new ways of recycling.
This is one of the recycling options we are exploring. But it's not just about recycling components from other tyres at the end of their life to make new ones. We are also thinking about recycling components from products as far removed from tyres as plastic bottles, for example.
This other recycling option concerns the manufacture of products for uses other than roads, such as tennis courts.
The aim is that materials from used tyres can find a second life in a form other than that of a tyre within the framework of a relevant and compatible reuse.
Tyre recovery: The easy way is to bring them to a local dealer.
Michelin's partner companies are responsible for collecting used tyres for recycling. Through this process, we can recover pieces of tyres to turn them into valuable materials that can be used to manufacture new tyres.
In France, for example, waste collection sites transport tyres to centres responsible for redirecting them to recycling channels. The same process applies in most of the world’s countries.