E4S Awards - Michelin ResiCare
1 Oct 2025
Project: Sustainable tire cord adhesive
Michelin has started a drive to increase the uptake of ResiCare tire cord reinforcement adhesive, which has been developed as a bio-based and non-toxic alternative to conventionally used RF (resorcinol-formaldehyde) products.
Based on ‘araminolic’ resins – polymers synthesized from polyphenols and aromatic aldehydes, Michelin said the product “offers the same technical performance as historical resins and, over the past four years, has been commercialised within the tire industry.”
Having reached a milestone with over 100 million tires produced using the resin this year, the French tire major said it is “eager to promote it to the largest tire manufacturers outside the Michelin Group.”
In reply to ERJ’s questions, Michelin said its intention [is] to make this technology available to everyone – even to competitor tire manufacturers – hence the creation of ResiCare as a subsidiary.
Resicare, it added, is a “plug & play technology, meaning that you will reach the same performances in term of adhesion, peel strength etc. no change on the dipping line, we just change the RF part of the [latex adhesive] solution.”
Asked about pricing, Michelin stated: “As a premium and disruptive technology, the price is higher in absolute but relatively over cost is acceptable – 4 euro cents per tire – and the scale up effect will optimise the cost in the year to come.”
Compared to RF resin, Michelin said its solution “removes all the toxicity generated by formaldehyde and resorcinol, however since it's a Novalac phenolic resin (an araminolic) it behaves like the ‘old’ generation in terms of performance."
