Amerityre Testing Polyurethane Retreads

(Akron/Tire Review) Amerityre Corp says that it has had “positive results” from both independent lab and field-testing of its proposed polyurethane tread stock for truck tyre retreading.

The company claimed that the testing included “pull tests” to test the “adhesion of the polyurethane elastomer tread compound to a rubber tyre casing,” and that “all tests have been conducted by an independent laboratory in accordance with ASTM test standards.”

“The results of these tests show that the polyurethane tread adhesion meets the adhesion requirements acceptable to the retread industry,” said Richard Steinke, Amerityre president and CEO. “We continue to be impressed with the performance of the polyurethane elastomer. The compounds outperformed comparable rubber compounds in both accelerated heat aging and ozone testing…and now we have excellent adhesion to rubber. All of these factors indicate that our retread manufacturing process will be very competitive in the retread industry.”

Amerityre said the retreading process it is developing “involves applying the polyurethane tread compound to the rubber tyre casing in such a way that the tread ‘seamlessly locks’ to the tyre casing without pressure or vulcanisation.”

Amerityre is also conducting field tests of its retreads used by a mining company, and Steinke said that initial feedback has been positive. “We will continue to test these tyres to better assess their performance characteristics in application, but we are also using the feedback to define the full range of applications our retreading technology might address,” he said. “At this point, we believe it can extend to the full-size OTR market.”