Innovation is the key to long-term success for any industrial business, and for the countries where they operate. In this article, Mike Norman, CCO at VMI Holland, explains why protecting IP is a key priority. VMI Group, based in the Netherlands, with operations around the world, is an international leader for tyre building machines.

Long live innovation!

VMI is 75 years old, and no manufacturer stays successful for so many years without a serious commitment to innovation. In the past 20 years, VMI has rewritten the book on automated tyre building. We have done that by creating manufacturing platforms capable of constant evolution, and then adding new innovations and improvements, year by year.

VMI has built a lot of trust in the market as a result of this strategy. Our customers know we invest more than any other comparable business in original R&D, and we make sure that every new idea leads to practical benefit for them.

Our business is built upon our Intellectual Property: our IP. It is what enables us to help customers face their own challenges. We are proud of the innovations we create - and we will protect our IP and our customers’ interests, anywhere, anytime.

Innovation and collaboration

In our experience, innovators like working together. It is exciting and it is a creative experience. You help each other. You get to move, develop and grow faster. You listen to each other, learn from each other and make progress faster as a result.

In the world of tyre development, we know exactly what we bring to the market, and we also know the areas that belong exclusively to our customers. Our products and solutions help make manufacturing processes more efficient, precise, controlled, more easily managed and fully auditable. That is our area, and that is where our IP is focused.

Our customers define the materials, the compounds, their operational characteristics, the different tire constructions and do so by knowing how all of this connects to the expectations and requirements of the automotive industry. That is their territory and we recognise that.

Put their IP and ours together, however, and something exciting happens. The individual tyre manufacturers remain as different and distinctive as ever, but the tyre build process becomes faster, more flexible and efficient, the number of variants available grows and quality standards rise.  

In other words, our ability to innovate helps tyre manufacturers become the best they can be, and also helps them unlock maximum benefit from their own innovations. That is why tyre companies with strong IP of their own are drawn to VMI, because they know we add value to their business, while always maintaining confidentiality.

Why protecting IP matters

Innovation is the fuel that drives business success, and the fastest way to undermine a successful business is to steal and copy its IP. That discourages further investment, while taking away the profits needed for the future.

It also slows down progress for us all. If you cannot defend your own creativity and original thinking, then fewer innovations take place and fewer good ideas are available for customers to use. In the tyre industry, this means that good companies, which want to use the best equipment to achieve the highest quality results for themselves, will lose out.

What is the point in buying the most advanced technology if your less honest, less scrupulous competitor can buy a cheap copy and undercut you on price? And what if you are tempted to buy a cheap copy of the market-leading machine, yourself, just to cut costs? And then find it is not as good as its makers told you? After all, copyists sometimes do not understand what they are copying, which adds serious risk when you buy that kind of machine. It also means that its makers simply cannot give you the service support you need- because they do not know how!

Worse, what happens when the machines bought from a copyist turn out to have stolen IP in their design? And the courts order them to be seized without compensation?

But maybe the most important argument of all for defending other people’s IP is simple self-interest. What would any of us do if our own ideas and innovations are stolen, copied and used against us? We are all part of the same marketplace. We cannot defend our own IP and yet be careless about other people’s. We need to protect innovation and IP completely, end-to-end across the entire industry and in all countries. That is the only way to protect ourselves, as well.

Innovation within the Indian marketplace

So why does a discussion of IP matter to India, in particular? We think Indian manufacturing is at an important stage of development. Despite the problems caused by Covid-19, we see every sign that India will be going through a period of rapid manufacturing growth in the next decade. We expect to see Indian companies, in automotive and related industries, taking a higher proportion of the domestic market and building share overseas, as well.

We have seen this happen in other sectors, after all: in IT, service markets, telecom and pharmaceuticals. Now Indian companies are stepping-up to the challenge in automotive and other sectors, too. Foreign companies operating in the Indian market need to be clear about the contribution they can make. At VMI, we understand what is needed. We will bring the best IP in the world for tyre building, and will work with ambitious, innovative Indian companies to help them develop a global presence. To make that happen, we need to know that the law protects ours- and everyone else’s- IP.

We spoke to Chetan Chadha, a leading IP attorney in Gurgaon, and his view was clear. “The Indian Courts,” he tells us, “have a strong track record of enforcing Intellectual Property Rights, acting to protect patent holders against infringements both by foreign and local Indian offenders.” He cites the example of a series of patent infringement litigations in the telecommunications sector in 2013 and 2014.

“These were a series of high-profile Standard Essential Patent (SEP) litigations,” he recalls, “in which several companies, including companies of Indian and Chinese origin, were sued for infringement of 8 patents, and interim injunction was granted in favour of the Patentee, irrespective of the origin of the allegedly infringing companies. Eventually, damages and injunctions were granted against infringing companies alike, without any bias.”

This legal example set a clear precedent that India has utmost respect for Intellectual Property Rights and will strictly enforce patents in order to protect the integrity of the market and maintain confidence.

VMI has been filing patents in India since 2005 and we expect our presence to deepen and grow in the near future. India’s proud record of defending IP is one of the main reasons why we, along with so many other European companies, are eager to work and trade here.

In this, our 75^th anniversary year, let’s celebrate the potential for a prosperous and profitable future together, working together as innovators in a spirit of mutual respect.

ENDS

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Chhattisgarh-based technology company Aarika Innovation has introduced KoolWheel, an automated tyre water spray cooling system manufactured in India.

The product is designed for freight vehicles and school buses to manage tyre overheating caused by road surface temperatures.

The system uses IR (infrared) temperature sensors, a 5-bar pump and solenoid valves to spray a mist on tyres when temperatures exceed a threshold. The hardware operates on a 12V setup and includes a controller that requires no driver intervention. Dashboard indicators and buzzers provide alerts regarding system status and temperature levels.

The company has introduced two variants of the product for KoolWheel Freight, which is designed for trucks, trailers and multi-axle vehicles, covering up to 22 tyres across six axles. And KoolWheel SchoolSafe, which is developed for school buses and coaches, featuring a 50-litre stainless steel tank and an automatic shutoff to prevent battery drain.

The company states the system can reduce tyre temperatures by up to 25deg Celsius and extend tyre life by up to 35 percent. The technology is intended to reduce the risk of blowouts and maintenance costs for fleet operators. The product is currently available in markets including Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Telangana.

Swayam Agarwal, Founder, Aarika Innovation, said, “KoolWheel has been created to solve a very real problem faced by Indian transporters and school bus operators every day. Tyre overheating is not just a maintenance issue; it directly impacts road safety, operating costs, and fleet reliability. With KoolWheel, our aim is to offer an affordable, intelligent, and Made-in-India solution that helps fleets run safer, longer, and more efficiently.”

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European tyre major Pirelli is starting production of its Cyber Tyre technology at its plant in Georgia. The facility produces tyres for the US market, including products for the motorsport segment.

The announcement occurred during the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Cyber Tyre is a system that collects data from sensors embedded in tyres. This data is processed through software and algorithms to communicate with vehicle electronics. The system is intended to integrate with driving systems to provide functionalities for mobility and safety.

Pirelli is also introducing the Modular Integrated Robotised System (MIRS) at the factory. This manufacturing process uses robots to manage productivity and quality. The system creates a link between product design and application. This update is intended to increase the production capacity of the site.

The Georgia plant has operated for over two decades and includes a research and development centre. The facility uses natural rubber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

Claudio Zanardo, CEO of Pirelli North America, said, “The start of Cyber Tyre production in our Rome, Georgia plant is a significant milestone for Pirelli in this country. It reflects our commitment to bringing advanced technologies like Cyber Tyre closer to the market, further strengthening our industrial footprint and innovation capabilities in the United States.”

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The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. developed a proprietary tyre mould design support system in April 2026, integrating finite element method (FEM) simulations and the company’s own artificial intelligence technology. This new tool is designed to augment the expertise of development personnel, enabling even less experienced staff to efficiently design moulds. It achieves this by providing data derived from numerous virtual experiments, which clarify how different mould design factors influence tyre characteristics.

The system accelerates mould development, lowers costs and minimises the rework typically associated with realising new designs. Furthermore, by fostering a multi-perspective understanding of the links between mould design elements and tyre performance, the tool equips Yokohama Rubber’s developers with fresh insights. These discoveries are expected to aid in creating tyres capable of achieving higher performance levels.

Developed under Yokohama Rubber’s HAICoLab AI concept launched in October 2020, the system addresses longstanding challenges. Mould design critically affects tyre traits, but traditionally understanding this relationship required expensive, time-consuming trial production and evaluations. The process also depended heavily on the tacit know-how of highly experienced staff, leading to variations in accuracy and development time based on individual expertise.

The support system resolves these issues through automated simulations and AI-based prediction and visualisation. It first generates numerous tyre FEM models with varied mould shapes and calculates their characteristics in a virtual space. These results train an AI surrogate model that instantly predicts design factor-performance relationships. By applying explainable AI technologies like SHAP and Partial Dependence Plots, the company’s developers can quantitatively visualise each factor’s impact, easily determining necessary adjustments to achieve targeted tyre characteristics.

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VMI has announced that it will showcase multiple new automation solutions at The Tire Cologne, aimed at advancing the retreading process. Among the innovations is an automatic splice unit, which will be on display and available for short demonstrations at the event. VMI account manager Ronald Noppers is scheduled to present on automation in retreading on 11 June at 12:45.

The company is introducing the automatic splice unit and automatic recipe loading as initial steps towards greater industry automation. Designed for applying extruded hot cushion gum to buffed tire casings, the VMI RETRAXX system currently relies heavily on skilled manual labour, a resource that is becoming scarcer and more expensive. To address this, VMI introduced an automated wingformer setting upgrade for the RETRAXX in 2024, allowing operators to start an automatic cycle that positions the wingformers without manual intervention.

Key advantages of these automation solutions include reduced operator dependency and improved uniformity and product quality. VMI will be located in hall 7 at stand number C-041.

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