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Michelin unveils new high-performance resin adhesive

27 Apr '18

2 min read

Courtesy: Michelin

Michelin Group, a leading tyre manufacturer which is headquartered in France, has launched a high –performance resin adhesive after nine years of research and development. The company will start using the new resin, which eliminates resorcinol and formaldehyde, as its material of choice for bonding textiles to rubber, providing better safety in products.

The new resin, which is currently unnamed, will avoid regulatory constraints in industrial settings where the RFL adhesive would be produced, as resorcinol and formaldehyde are subjected to regulatory limits.

Michelin tested the adhesive with multiple types of fibres in tire applications, such as polyester, nylon, and aramid. The company also tested across various sizes and types of tires, from passenger to agricultural, to find a product that could be used across the board as a replacement for RFL.

The company is moving ahead in mass production of some passenger car and light truck tires, launching the lines with the new glue before year-end 2018. The company is still defining the range of tires and sizes, but will produce at least some sizes of the Michelin Energy Saver and Michelin Alpin tires with the new adhesive before year-end.

Olivier Furnon, Michelin’s industrial director said, “The new adhesive uses polyphenols, with antioxidant properties, and polyaldehydes, regularly used in the perfume industry, to replace the resorcinol and formaldehyde in the glue, respectively. We are very confident that these two products won't come under regulatory limits. The resin at the base of the adhesive could have many potential uses outside of the scope of tires.”

Michelin has created a special entity within the company called ResiCare for the marketing, commercialisation and industrialisation of the resin. The new entity will allow manufacturers that are interested in the technology to benefit by either acquiring the necessary process for production or by purchasing the resin directly. (GK)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India