French tyre giant Michelin has pushed back the limits of mobility. It has introduced a new, anti-landmine military tyre specially designed to aid clearing of safe pathways in landmine-studded areas.
Michelin’s All-Inclusive Approach
Michelin worked in close contact with French military and MBDA – a leading manufacturer of defence systems – to develop this revolutionary radial. The tyre maker explained that it’s their duty to stretch beyond the traditional tyre supplier role and provide comprehensive mobility support.
Michelin also said that it has used its experience in building tyres capable of performing at low pressures, while engineering this anti-landmine product. The tyre design enables exertion of ground pressure that’s even lesser than that of a human’s footfall. And this can be achieved when it’s fitted to an over 7.5tonne vehicle.
The particular vehicle is the military’s SOUVIM II, essentially a mine clearing system. It moves across land mines and functions so as to not trigger detection systems. Michelin claims that its invention, called LX PSI 710/75R34, has pushed back mobility limits in extreme situations.
The Technicalities
A typical armoured reconnaissance vehicle wields a 5kg/sq.cm pressure on the ground. But, an around 7.5-tonne SOUVIM II, equipped with LX PSI 710/75R34 tyres, 200kg each, exerts a mere 360g/sq.cm pressure. And that’s lesser than 660g/sq.cm ground pressure exerted by an 80kg person while walking. Better still, its lesser compared to the 450g/cm pressure that a 2.5kg rabbit exerts on the soil.
Michelin’s new tyre enables SOUVIM II to move over flat land mines, avoid detection and deform tops of conical mines without triggering activation.It can hence demine 150km conduits in a day at velocities of 20km/h on an average.
The Result of Extensive Research and Extreme Precision
The technological feat is a result of ten years of massive research and development. And Michelin calls this new development “the crowning achievement” of its expertise in the tyre industry.
Extremely experienced production line operators adhered to a complex process to build Michelin’s entirely hand-crafted innovative anti-land mine product. The key technical challenge constitutes of manually building and affixing a broad, 10cm wide, foam band on a sheath derived from the manufacturer’s agricultural tyres functioning on low pressure.
This entire exercise aims at applying the longest possible tyre footprint. The difficult-to-work-with-and-shape foam material is encased in a fine film of rubber called “skim” to improve grip and protection.
Michelin said that it’s latest anti-land mine innovation has been realised on the foundation of a strong R&D programme, which included over 6,600 researchers working on an operational budget of more than €640 million.
As a consequence of Michelin’s novel invention, security, evacuation, supply operations and rescue are now more feasible in land mine-ridden areas. These LX PSI 710/75 R 34 tyres cleared every stealth test and earned OE certification for SOUVIM II, after successful testing last year.
Additionally, Michelin has reworked its product line-up of all-terrain X-force truck mobility solutions. Apart from military applications, this range brings ace all-terrain mobility performance level to emergency services, competition truck tyre sectors and leisure.