Pirelli modernizes research and development due to pandemic

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Italian tire manufacturer Pirelli, like many other companies, has had to temporarily close its factories. The pandemic has resulted in production disruptions and reduced sales for tire manufacturers around the world, and Pirelli's revenue fell by a third in the first half of 2020. As a result, the company had to quickly adapt its research and development to the new situation in order to support the expected growth in sales next year. Pirelli's scientific department leader Pierangelo Misani told Reuters in an interview with Reuters.

“There are crisis moments when it is necessary to reorganize and improve its efficiency,” said Mizani. "This is what we are doing now."

The company needed to quickly adapt to new conditions. Since several new products were scheduled to be released at the beginning of next year, some of the work was moved online so that quarantined engineers could test new materials and tires in virtual mode.

Pirelli, like many other players in the automotive sector, has long expanded the use of digital technology, which allows engineering development in a virtual environment. At the same time, Pirelli continues testing in real conditions, since sometimes they are preferable and informative than virtual tests. As explained by Pierangelo Mizani, Pirelli has hired young IT professionals who are gradually moving from costly tests at proving grounds to virtual tests.

A number of tests, including tire noise and aquaplaning tests, can be carried out with high accuracy using computer simulations, but extensive road tests are required to verify tire durability, handling and other important characteristics. Since the lockdown made it impossible to conduct traditional tests, Pirelli engineers needed new solutions, one of which was a simulator, similar to those that have been used in Formula 1 for many years.

Pirelli uses a 210-degree panoramic simulator that cuts tire development time by 30% by eliminating the need for multiple physical prototypes. During the spring lockdown, the engineers worked remotely, connecting to the Pirelli server. “The epidemic has pushed us to expand the use of computer modeling,” explained Mizani.

As Pierangelo Mizani notes, now the role of virtual modeling in the development process is becoming more and more significant, and this is happening at a very fast pace. This method works most effectively when creating new tires for the aftermarket, for which Pirelli has already prepared three new products - in early 2021 the Italian manufacturer will introduce a new summer UHP tire, as well as a new all-season and winter model.

In the OE segment, work is a little slower because development is tied to the pace at which the vehicle is being built for which the tires are intended. However, according to Mizani, automakers are also increasingly using IT platforms, so the process is going well.

Pirelli's R&D centers are located around the world, including Germany, South America, the USA and China. The company also owns several of its own test sites. Since part of the work is now going on in virtual mode, the saved funds are used to purchase new tools and software, as well as to improve the company's IT infrastructure. According to Pierangelo Mizani, new technologies reduce costs and shorten the time it takes to create new products and bring them to market. “This is not an optimization, but a complete restructuring of the work of the scientific department,” he concluded.