Michelin Earns US Agri Journal Award

The US agricultural journal Farm Industry News has recognised Michelin’s new Ultraflex Technology as one of the most significant innovations of the past year. The publication presented Michelin Agricultural Tires with a FinOvation Award at a banquet during February’s 2007 Farm Machinery Show held in Kentucky.

The editors of Farm Industry News present the FinOvation awards every year in recognition of those products that both readers and a panel of farmers vote as being the most innovative and significant. Bill Schafer, vice president of sales and marketing for Michelin Agricultural Tires, says he is delighted that Michelin’s dedication to innovation impressed Farm Industry News and its readers. “Michelin offers customers better mobility,” said Schafer. “Our Ultraflex Technology has been uniquely engineered to allow farmers to run high horsepower, four-wheel-drive tractors at inflation pressures that are as much as 20 percent lower than standard radials. In addition to the greater durability that radials offer, Ultraflex Technology helps our customers realize better mobility in their operations by improving their operating efficiency, their productivity and – ultimately – their profitability.”

Michelin report that the magazine it rarely bestows the FinOvation award on a tyre but in this instance the awards panel and the magazine’s readers were so impressed with the Ultraflex Technology employed in the Michelin Axiobib radial that Michelin was an obvious winner. According to Farm Industry News, the Ultraflex Technology in the Michelin Axiobib tyre “represents a new category of radial technology.”

The key feature of Ultraflex Technology is its ability to enlarge the area in the tyre’s sidewall that flexes under load The Axiobib, designed for tractors between 250hp and 500hp, was first shown to the public at the Agritechnica Hanover show in Germany in November 2005.