The company’s 150th anniversary coincides with a significant renewal of the range, which will significantly affect the High-Performance segment thanks to the new Scorpion Winter 2, a winter tire expressly dedicated to Sport Utility Vehicles. Several forecasts agree that SUVs will soon be the most popular vehicle segment worldwide, a decidedly strategic target for tire manufacturers, but also a particularly challenging product to develop. These vehicles, in fact, feature a high gross vehicle mass, a high centre of gravity as well as unique mechanical characteristics and driving dynamics. All things that distinguish such vehicles from more traditional sedans or station wagons which translates in a need for dedicated tires. The new range of Scorpion tires responds to this need, transferring to the SUV market many of the hi-tech innovations recently introduced by Pirelli in the Cinturato family, with specific solutions tailor-made for these vehicles. The result is a range with the most advanced technologies, able to cope with the need for greater performance including “green” power units as evidenced by the numerous approvals obtained for electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles, a path that began with the previous generation and continues down to this day.
A new design perspective
Scorpion and Scorpion All Season SF2 are the new summer and four-season tires introduced by Pirelli in an effort to bolster the company’s product portfolio. The new Scorpion Winter 2 was developed in response to even more specific challenges, having to reconcile the needs for an SUV product with the requirements expected in a winter tire. As Pierangelo Misani, Pirelli's Senior Vice President R&D and Cyber, explains, "The characteristic of a vehicle has a fundamental impact on how the tires will work, and SUVs tires imply very specific design challenges: we need to support greater load transfer, while the larger size of the tire itself makes it more subject to sidewall deformation. In the case of the winter tire, we also need to consider that adding sipes to the tread pattern decreases the stiffness of the tire." The answer to these challenges comes with a new structure, specially developed compounds and, of course, a new groove pattern, but above all, Misani explains, with a new innovative design approach implemented by Pirelli: "In recent years we have been striving to innovate processes, both in the production area, where we are now very flexible, and in terms of design." The key design concepts are therefore open innovation, which means maximum collaboration with external parties such as universities, research centres or suppliers, and design virtualization, which means speed of development and a total control of the different design stages and their interactions. The sum of these two factors is much faster, more accurate and effective design.
This is all part of a broader design concept that Pirelli calls "Eco-Safety," which combines low environmental impact (low rolling resistance, reduced rolling noise and high mileage) with improved performance related to safety (short braking distances, grip, vehicle stability and low risk of aquaplaning). Pirelli's approach to sustainability is based on three principles: first an increased use of renewable raw materials, an example may be silica derived from rice husks, but there is also a specific effort to use new biopolymers and bio-resins thus reducing the need for fossil-derived materials. The second principle is sustainability "in use," that is, during the life of the tire, which means minimizing rolling resistance, but also maximizing the durability of the product. Finally, the end-of-life issue, which sets the goal of focusing no longer on recycling rubber but on regenerating materials, for example through pyrolysis.
Extendable sipes
The result of all these innovations can be seen in the new Scorpion Winter 2, developed to provide safety in all winter conditions, from snow to wet roads, from slippery to dry surfaces at low temperatures. The innovative tread design features the "extendable" variable geometry sipes: thanks to the 3D structure, the sipes change shape according to the state of wear of the tread, going from a linear to a zigzag shape that increases its surface area and effectiveness, preserving performance on snow, wet and dry even when the tire is worn, consequently extending its life compared to the previous product. About 51 metres of sipes promote greater grip on snow-covered roads, with a 20 percent increase in grip on snow compared to the previous Scorpion Winter. Added to this is a larger and reinforced tread block to address the characteristics of modern SUVs which need more grip to maximize braking and driving performance on snow and wet roads. In fact, the compound of the Scorpion Winter 2 has been developed through the use of an innovative system of liquid polymers and fillers capable of improving the tire’s behaviour in rainy conditions as well as snow compared to the previous product, in synergy with a process patented by Pirelli and drawn from its experience in motorsport, which allows to maximize the mix of components of the compound favouring the performance of the tire. As for the casing, the use of polyester instead of rayon makes it possible to switch from a dual-ply to a single-ply structure, thus reducing rolling resistance and weight.
