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The industry of the tyre built itself since the end of the XIXth century thanks to the development and the adaptation of innovative technologies, like for example the radial tire or the introduction of silica in the energy-saving tires. The French Factory of Pneumatics Michelin is one of the world leaders of the tyre. But this business sector is strongly competitive, because new actors stemming from emerging countries appear and win consequent market shares on the historic leaders. While in 2000 the Chinese manufacturers represented only a marginal part of the market, in 2011 the volume of tires produced by these last ones amounts to the total volume of 3 world leaders. In this context, it is essential to innovate on products, in particular in the field of the materials for the development of the low energy-saving tires (grading A). Today, the main development limitation of new rubbers is the industrial processing. In particular, when the new silica-filled elastomers are extruded into profiles, volume defects appear on extrudates, preventing from the feasibility of such formulations. Michelin thus wishes to open new ways of innovation, at present forbidden by these industrial constraints. For that purpose, it is necessary to understand the causes of these extrusion instabilities and to develop knowledge on the nanostructure and the properties of these compounds. This kind of study already exists in the field of the thermoplastic polymers but in the field of nano filled elastomers. Our final goal is to obtain physical multi-scales criteria that describe the rheologic behaviour of these materials, connected with microstructural and molecular parameters, so as to determine the link of causality with the appearance of volume instabilities in extrusion.
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