Pirelli in link-up to expand virtual reality application for tire development

Milan, Italy – Pirelli & C. SpA, Milan Polytechnic and Polytechnic Foundation have signed a new agreement to continue their ‘joint labs’ research programme which was launched a decade ago.

The three-year extension (2021-2023) will target the enhancement of the potential of virtual modelling, and will focus on materials and cyber development, said Pirelli in a 2 Dec statement.

Pirelli’s static simulator, installed at the company’s R&D centre in Milan, as well as the dynamic simulator in the Politecnico will play a “pivotal” role in the programme, which will now also include driving simulators. 

The €2-million agreement will particularly investigate the integrated use of static and dynamic simulators to optimise the development and testing of new tires, reduce lead times and strengthen collaborations with car manufacturers.

In the materials area, the programme will study the modification of polymers, nano-fillers, protective tire materials, new environmental materials as well as "open-source modelling for mixing and modelling of textile reinforcements."

The research will also cover “product and cyber development”, which will include areas such as external and internal noise, tire aerodynamics and automated tread modelling.

‘Cyber development’ will target the design and consolidation of models for intelligent vehicle control data and development of value-added services from cyber systems, the tire maker said.

Pirelli and Milan University started their joint lab programme 10 years ago and have until now registered 14 patent families and published 30 articles in international scientific journals. 

“Our priorities with the 'joint labs' programme take in all aspects of sustainability, evolved automation, virtualisation and connectivity,” said Marco Tronchetti Provera, Pirelli’s executive vice-chairman and CEO. 

“The collaboration with the university underlines our commitment to strengthen the core of our group's know-how in these key areas within Italy,” he added.