ResiCare: new responsible adhesives find uses “beyond the tire”

After four years of technical and industrial development, ResiCare, a Michelin subsidiary specializing in the development and production of high-performance adhesives that are safer to people and the planet, has found an initial commercial outlet “beyond the tire”.

This advance, intended for the wood industry, is the result of a collaboration that began in 2018 between ResiCare and Allin, a French specialist in the production of plywood panels.

Since February, Allin has been marketing “R’PLY”, the first responsible plywood, integrating a ResiCare resin that is kinder to health and the environment. Comprising layers of eco-certified okoume or poplar wood, “R’PLY” is a high-performance plywood for multiple applications. The “R’PLY” panels will soon be available to private individuals in certain DIY superstores. They are also suited for use in vehicle and boat construction as well as in the building trade.

In May 2021, ResiCare set up a mobile resin production unit on the Michelin site in Olsztyn, Poland. Michelin’s ambition is to substitute, by 2025, more than 80% of its usual adhesive for use in tire textile reinforcement with a new ResiCare adhesive free from any substances of very high concern for health (SVHC).

Based on the Olsztyn model, ResiCare intends to set up other compact production units over the coming months in Europe and Asia, opening the way to an ambitious plan to deploy this textile reinforcement technology for all tire producers.

ResiCare stems from Michelin’s desire to substitute its customary adhesives, used in tire textile stiffeners, with formalin- and resorcinol-free adhesives that are safer to human health and to the environment.

Convinced by the results obtained, Michelin and ResiCare now want to add value to this technology that goes “beyond the tire”.

This approach is yet another illustration of the Group’s “all sustainable” strategy and its ambitions for development “beyond the tire”.