SCA Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin is a French company specialized in the manufacture of tires founded by the brothers Édouard Michelin and André Michelin on May 28, 1889 developed for bicycle tires. Its headquarters are located in the city of Clermont-Ferrand, capital of the Puy-de-Dôme department, in the geographical center of France. Together with Bridgestone it is the largest tire manufacturer in the world. The French company is involved in various motorsport categories, mainly in the World Motorcycling Championship and the World Rally Championship. The mascot of this company is called Bibendum, a white character that is made of tires. This "pneumatic man" was created in 1895, just three years after the automobile was born. The bulky shape of this cute character has led to the name of excess fat around the waist in Spain, Brazil and Chile, called michelines. In the rest of Latin America they are called tires or rubbers. Bibendum was designed by Marius Rossillon imitating the human silhouette stacked with Michelin tires. His image has been evolving throughout the history of the tire brand. In the 1920s the doll was smoking. It was not until the 1950s that he became a friendlier character, he stopped appearing smoking and his silhouette began to round out. In the year 1998, on his centenary, his curves became slimmer.4 As of 2007, Michelin holds the record for the largest tire manufactured, these are the 59/80R63 tires fitted to the giant Caterpillar model 797B dump truck used in mining excavation. Each tire weighs 5 tons, is 4.5 meters in diameter and 1.48 meters wide, with an inflation pressure of 6.5 bar. The cost of each of these tires is around 30,000 euros. In Spain it has factories in Aranda de Duero (Burgos), Valladolid, Vitoria and Lasarte-Oria. In Argentina, it has roof coating plants. The first was inaugurated in mid-December 2011 in Morteros, Province of Córdoba5 in which 17 million pesos were invested. For the month of April 2013, it promised to open three more plants, located in: Tandil, Province of Buenos Aires for between the months of July and August; Granadero Baigorria, Santa Fe in September and Oberá, Misiones6 in November. In Mexico, it has a plant in the city of Querétaro and another one in the pipeline in the city of León in the state of Guanajuato, due to the fact that this has become an important automobile production center.
In 1889 two brothers, Édouard Michelin and André Michelin, ran a rubber factory in Clermont-Ferrand, France. One day, a cyclist whose pneumatic tire needed repair showed up at the factory. The tire was stuck to the rim, and it took over three hours to remove and repair the tire, which then had to be left overnight to dry. The next day, Édouard Michelin took the repaired bike to the factory yard to test it. After only a few hundred meters the tire failed. Despite the setback, Édouard was enthusiastic about the pneumatic tire, and he and his brother worked on creating his own version, one that didn't need to be glued to the rim. Michelin was incorporated on May 28, 1889. In 1891 Michelin took out its first patent for a removable tire that was used by Charles Terront to win the world's first long-distance cycle race, the 1891 Paris-Brest-Paris.
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