Michelin has opened a factory in North America to produce the company’s new Tweel airless radial tyre.
An idea first conceived by Michelin research engineers in the US, the Tweel is a revolutionary non-pneumatic tyre that has changed the configuration of a conventional tyre, bringing together the tyre and the wheel assembly into one solid unit. The Tweel comprises a rigid hub connected to a shear beam by means of flexible, deformable polyurethane spokes, all functioning as a single unit.
Unlike conventional tyres, the Tweel has no air, thereby solving what had seemed to be the unavoidable challenge of chronic flat tyres that plagues the landscape, construction, contracting, refuse/recycling and agricultural industries.
“The Tweel being built here in South Carolina is yet another dramatic example of Michelin’s long-standing commitment to breakthrough innovation,” Michelin’s North America chairman and president, Pete Selleck, said. “The Tweel concept was born at Michelin Americas Research Company at Greenville, South Carolina, one of Michelin’s three global technology centres, and now the Tweel will be manufactured in the Greenville area to satisfy a growing commercial market.”
The new plant gives Michelin the ability to boost output of its award-winning Michelin X Tweel SSL skid-steer tyres and begin production of the new Michelin X Tweel Turf as original equipment for John Deere to equip its ZTrakTM 900 Series line-up of zero-turn commercial mowers.
For more information visit: www.michelintweel.com.
