14MB - Pirelli

EXTRAORDINARY SESSION CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENT SUSTAINABILITY REPORT DIRECTORS' REPORT PRELIMINARY INFORMATION
The sphere of open innovation (technological cooperation
between Pirelli, its most technologically advanced suppliers and
customers and numerous universities around the world) resulted
in some important discoveries in 2008. The Piedmont Region, the
Province of Turin, the town of Settimo Torinese, the Politecnico
University of Turin and the Pirelli Group signed a collaboration
agreement with the aim of developing research and innovation
programs under the project to build a new Pirelli industrial hub
in Settimo Torinese. An important part of this activity will be
achieved through the Politecnico University of Turin. In particular,
according to the agreement, the new technologies on which
Pirelli is focusing its research activities in the tyre sector will be
introduced to the Settimo Torinese hub.
They include the latest generation of MIRS technology, a development
of the robotized tyre-production process which guarantees
high-quality and uniform products, TSM (Twin Screw Mixing),
a new material compound process with a high level of quality
and reliability, and the Cyber Tyre, the "intelligent" tyre of the
future, equipped with sensors able to transmit useful information
for driving and control of the vehicle. 2008 saw the first working
prototypes of the Cyber Tyre, developed by a team of more than
80 engineers and researchers from some of the world’s leading
electronics development companies and some of the most distinguished
universities in the world (Berkeley, Politecnico University
of Milan, Politecnico University of Turin).
Mounted on cars, these tyre prototypes demonstrated their capacity
to relay important information to the driver and the vehicle’s
control system: for example, the maximum friction available in
an almost free-rolling situation (before braking). Furthermore,
the foundations were laid for sealing strategic agreements with
leading companies in the automotive segment to manufacture the
electronic components of the Cyber Tyre on an industrial scale,
and to develop new functions which will improve safety for car
drivers and passengers.
The Pirelli Group and the Politecnico University of Milan signed
an agreement to create a chair, funded along with five PhD
research scholarships over a ten-year period, on the subject of
“The Chemical Bases of the Technology of Rubber and Rubber
Composites”. The aim of the new chair is to promote the study of
innovative materials and the application of nanotechnologies to
develop a new generation of tyres.
The Silvio Tronchetti Provera Foundation and the University of
Shandong in Jinan in China signed a research agreement to study
a new generation of "green" tyres. Researchers from the university
will work together with the Pirelli Group’s R&D department
in China to create tyres with low rolling resistance, in order to
reduce vehicle fuel consumption.
This project fits into the framework of the Pirelli Group’s
longstanding commitment to R&D activities to develop tyres
that are ever-more environmentally compatible. The agreement
between the Italian company and the Chinese university also
includes two joint research initiatives with respective goals of realizing
more consistent compounds and studying low-temperature
tyre vulcanization.
In the sphere of car tyres, in 2008, Pirelli’s R&D department came
up with two new products: the Cinturato and the Sottozero Serie II.
32 PIRELLI & C. S.p.A. MILAN