Inside Michelin's Top-Secret MotoGP Tire Lab, In The April Issue

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26/04/2024 00:00

Featured In the April 2024 issue of Roadracing World:

If I didn't know better, I'd think it was magic. We are watching a Michelin Moto GP rear slick being made and it is a thing of wonder.

The tire is being created from nothing by Michelin's C3M process, which is basically a huge 3D printer, measuring about four meters square and standing several meters tall. The tire is built on a spinning, heated steel mold, one ingredient after the other.

Computer-controlled robot arms whizz this way and that, applying the base rubber via a multi-head nozzle; knitting in metal cords, both the belts around the tire's bead and the cords crisscrossed across the tire; then knitting in textile cords; then applying the rubber compound that does the work, layer by layer.Everything happens at high speed, a blur before our eyes…

“MotoGP Analysis: Conjuring Magic Tires,” by Mat Oxley

Michelin has been MotoGP's exclusive tire supplier for almost a decade now. We get a rare peek inside the company's MotoGP tire lab and see how its racing tires are made—by a giant 3D printer! It’s all in the latest issue of Roadracing World!

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