MICHELIN TWEEL: THE AIRLESS TYRE TECHNOLOGY

Tweel tyres represent a significant technological progress in the tyre industry and have been performing successfully in the
market since 2012. This alternative to traditional tyre allows us to consider a more environmental friendly mobility, better
fuel efficiency, more durable tyre and especially no puncture tyres.

Airless tyres, also known as non-pneumatic tyres, are designed to eliminate the need for air pressure maintenance. However, like any other tyre, airless tyres still require some inspection to ensure proper performance and longevity. For example, tread wear, debris and dirt, vehicle alignment, load capacity, and storage.

MICHELIN has already developed a prototype for a no air tyre for passenger car and light truck: the MICHELIN UPTIS.

MICHELIN UPTIS (Unique Puncture-proof tyre System) and Michelin Tweel are both innovative tyre technologies developed by Michelin, but they are different in design and function.

MICHELIN UPTIS is an airless tyre designed for passenger cars and light trucks (on road vehicles) while MICHELIN Tweel is adapted to a wider range of off-road vehicles.

Our Michelin innovative technology, the Tweel, is available for sale on the market since 2012.

You can find our complete MICHELIN X® TWEEL™ product portfolio at our dealers.

This is not the same kind of polyurethane you normally find in the marketplace. Poly-resin is structural polyurethane. It is specifically formulated for this application.

Michelin has adapted technical curing processes from its high performance tyres for use in the production of
MICHELIN X® TWEEL™ airless radial tyres. In addition, Michelin has developed proprietary casting, injecting, and bonding processes for MICHELIN X® TWEEL™ products.

Since 2012, the MICHELIN X® TWEEL™ Airless Radial tyre and its co-inventors have been presented with over 15 awards.

• A Silver Award in the Transportation category was awarded to the MICHELIN® X®TWEEL® SSL on April 26, 2013 by the 2013 Edison Awards. Of the 7,156 applications received, 131 finalists were selected by the Edison Awards Committee. The MICHELIN® X® TWEEL® was one of 42 winners, who represented 12 categories and symbolize the persistence and excellence personified by Thomas Alva Edison.
  • The MICHELIN® X®TWEEL® SSL was selected as one of the 2013 Contractors’ Top 50 New Products by readers of Equipment Today as one of the industry’s most innovative products for the year.
  • In January 2014, Equipment World named one of the “five game-changing” construction products of 2013 for their 2014 Innovations Awards. The MICHELIN® X® TWEEL® SSL was named as one of those five product winners.
  • Dr. Tim Rhyne, a senior research fellow with Michelin Americas Research and Development Corporation, was selected as a 2014 recipient by the editors at Engineering News-Record (ENR) as a top 25 Newsmakers of the year for his work on the revolutionary MICHELIN® TWEEL® airless radial tyre technology in April. The award recognizes individuals "with the passion, drive and courage to tackle the most difficult challenges and make our world a better place."
  • In June 2014, Michelin North America, Inc. received a Manufacturing Leadership Award in the Product Leadership category at the 2014 Manufacturing Leadership Awards for the MICHELIN® X® TWEEL® SSL by the Frost & Sullivan’s Manufacturing Leadership Council. The awards were presented in 11 categories and celebrate companies and individuals that are shaping the future of global manufacturing. They recognize outstanding projects undertaken and completed by manufacturing companies. According to the Manufacturing Leadership Community, the award winners distinguish themselves by “embracing breakthrough innovation and respond to customers with unmatched agility.” The Product Leadership award, one of the most competitive categories, recognises companies that have introduced disruptive new products that expand or open new markets. The award winner demonstrates the ability to generate new ideas that lead to pioneering new products that change and create markets.
  • In March 2015, Michelin Tweel Technologies received the John Deere “Innovation of the Year Award” for the MICHELIN® X® TWEEL® TURF. The award is presented to a select group of suppliers that have demonstrated innovation in a product or service they provide to John Deere. Award selections are based on four factors: creativity, feasibility, collaboration and bottom-line impact. John Deere created the supplier innovation awards in 2010 to promote innovation in the company's supply base and recognise suppliers that think creatively.
  • In October 2015, the MICHELIN® X® TWEEL® TURF™ received an Honourable Mention in the Automotive/Transportation category in the 2015 Create the Future Design Contest. Chosen from more than 1,150 new product ideas submitted from 60 countries, the 22 winners and honourable mentions were judged on innovation, manufacturability and marketability in seven categories. Launched in 2002 by the publishers of NASA Tech Briefs magazine to help stimulate and reward engineering innovation, the Create the Future Design Contest annual event has attracted more than 10,000 product design ideas from engineers, entrepreneurs, and students worldwide. More than 55 judges worldwide on the magazine’s editorial board of readers and contest sponsors reviewed the submissions in the Aerospace & Defence, Automotive/Transportation, Consumer Products, Electronics, Machinery/Automation/Robotics, Medical Products, and Sustainable Technologies categories.

It was over lunch in the late 1990s in Greenville S.C. that Dr. Tim Rhyne with fellow Michelin engineer and co-inventor Steve Cron had the idea of challenging pneumatic tyre technology and exploring new and revolutionary concepts for this essential component of mobility. Patents began to be issued on various aspects of the concept in 1999, 2000 and 2003.

Over the following decade, the engineers worked diligently on various prototypes of the MICHELIN X® TWEEL™ Airless Radial tyre and, in 2005, the product was finally showcased at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit Michigan on the iBOT wheelchair and Segway Concept Centaur Human Transporter. The commercial launch of the MICHELIN X® TWEEL™ SSL for skid steer loaders was in July 2012.

High-performance compounds and an efficient contact patch designed to provide a long wear life that is 2-3 times that of a pneumatic tyre at equal tread depth.

A technician can repair partially torn spokes by blunting the polyurethane crack tip to arrest further crack propagation,
and once repaired, this can potentially double the life of the torn or cut spoke.