French tyre maker Michelin is announcing the inauguration of its Cosmos machine on its industrial site in Troyes, France. Cosmos, as it is known, uses a new technology suited to the specific nature of agricultural tyre manufacture – size, weight, material technology, etc.
The site currently concentrates 40% of the Michelin group’s global capacity for agricultural tyre production. It numbers 750 employees, exports 85% of its production (66% to Europe and 29% to North America) and counts among its clients such major constructors as the CNH Group (Case, Steyr, New Holland) and the AGCO Group (Fendt, Challenger, Massey-Ferguson and Valtra), and even John Deere and CLAAS.
For this project, and since the studies began, multi-disciplinary teams have worked with the site’s production operators to develop a solution that is perfectly tailored to their everyday use, it adds.
In 2021, the Troyes site defined its 2021-20236 roadmap that should allow it to consolidate its overall performance and strengthen its place in the group’s industrial strategy in Europe, based on manufacturing tyre ranges at competitive prices, by focusing on more lucrative markets, especially the high-power tractor market; and developing the site’s attractiveness by improving the quality of life in the workplace in all its aspects.
From the development of the Cosmos project to its operation, everything has been considered around the Michelin Group’s All Sustainable vision.
From an environmental point of view, through the integration of this new technology, Cosmos will allow for improving the Troyes site’s environmental performance by reducing the use of solvents by around 20%, Michelin adds.
In terms of economic performance, this new machine will offer greater flexibility in customer service, by manufacturing dimensional ranges that were impossible to produce on site up to now. The industrialisation of new tyre dimensions will also allow the Michelin Troyes site to position itself on products that are even more technological and with high added value. As well, thanks to this new machine, the workstation ergonomics have been considerably improved.
Alongside Cosmos, the Troyes factory has also undertaken a manufacturing workshop modernisation project. In 2022, the site inaugurated its first robots with the aim of eliminating gruelling tasks with a low added value within workshops. A project to implement automated carts is also underway.