Rome Is Home for Pirelli--But Not Italy
Pirelli recently began producing tires at its new, state-of-the-art factory in Rome, Georgia. Costing over $100 million for the factory and $250 million for the entire project, the factory features Modular Integrated Robotized Systems technology. This technology allows for many benefits, one of which is the construction of tires with no joint in the design, meaning that each tire is a perfect circle of rubber.
MIRS technology is a Pirelli original, with mechanical and technological design assistance from universities and industry leaders and is the use of robots for virtually all aspects of tire assembly. So efficient is this system, that there's no overstock within the factory itself, as all the tires are shipped within the week they're made. Thus far, the robots require just over 3000 square feet of workspace to complete a job, which formerly took well over 9000.
It wouldn't surprise us if, someday, the whole plant could fit into a trailer, making it possible to produce tires at the races, instead of hauling them to it. The Rome facility is the first Pirelli plant in the United States and the first MIRS tire factory in the world, producing tires for the North American high-performance SUV and car markets. The tires produced at the factory will be the Ultra High Performance PZero Nero M+S, for vehicles such as the Viper and Corvette, Scorpion STR, for midsize truck applications, and Scorpion Asimmetrico, for high-performance truck applications.