Focus on: Pirelli’s Cinturato All Season SF3 tire

Milan, Italy – Pirelli has launched the Cinturato All Season SF3 tire “for city drivers of medium and compact cars who need a safe solution all year round.”

Virtually-designed, the product is said to offer a high level of braking control across different weather conditions.

All the sizes in the range have obtained the highest A rating on the European tyre label for wet grip.

Snow control is “guaranteed” by its 3PMSF marking, which identifies tires that are certified for severe winter conditions.

On dry roads, the tire is stated to “ensure stability, acoustic comfort, and rolling resistance that are closer to a summer tire than a winter tire.”

Independent Dekra tests in Germany have identified the tire as best-in-class for combined braking – in dry, wet, and snow conditions, while the new Cinturato has also gained TÜV SÜD ‘performance mark’ for its performance in different driving situations.

The tire employs adaptive tread technology with 3D sipes that change shape from a straight line into a zigzag pattern, increasing the surface area capable of capturing snow despite the reduction in tread depth.

The sipes also can open and close according to the energy travelling through the tire, being capable of going from a winter configuration into a much stiffer and more compact summer pattern as required.

The rubber compound is tailored to balance the tire's stiffness, stability, and responsiveness even in high temperatures, as evidenced by leading position in dry braking.

At the same time, the new tire is equally effective in winter as the compound does not harden in the cold – which helps to provide more grip, continued Pirelli.

This, it said, is down to the introduction of an innovative mix of polymers with special microstructures that are capable of maintaining high mobility when it’s cold yet adequate stiffness when it’s hot.

Ingredients also include new natural resins that ensure grip at low temperatures, and liquid polymers that maximise performance on snow without penalising grip on wet roads.

Virtual design

Pirelli said the use of virtual modelling “was fundamental throughout the design process, allowing the compounds and tread pattern design to be developed in parallel.”

Virtualisation, it added, also made it possible “to precisely engineer the distribution of physical stresses on the tire.

“As a result, energy is spread evenly throughout the footprint of the [tire] with a string of benefits in terms of wear, noise, and rolling resistance.”