Michelin’s ‘auto-regenerate’ tire wins EPO award

Munich, Germany – The European Patent Office (EPO) has awarded Micheli’s ‘auto-regenerate’ tire the European inventor award 2018 in the industry category.

At a 7 June event in Paris, Michelin’s researchers Agnès Poulbot and Jacques Barraud were recognised for their work on a new generation of tires, Marketed as the RegenionTM tire technology.

The tread design, carried out by 3D metal printing, includes several unique layers of tread within the same tire.

As the outermost layer is worn down, a new, specialised tread will emerge to be in contact with the road surface. This can extend the tire’s lifespan by 20%.

Additionally, the tire is claimed to reduce rolling resistance and increase fuel efficiency, due to its design.

“The patented design offers another significant benefit: upgrading a vehicle to Regenion tires results in 3,724 kg fewer CO2 emissions per tire lifespan compared with conventional models,” the EPO citation noted.

The EPO awards were given in five categories of industry, research, non-EPO countries, SMEs and lifetime achievement.

Also winning the industry awards were Lego’s programmable robots and ASML Netherlands' latest ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) advances in producing microprocessors.