Continental Industrial Tyres: Continued Innovation in Korbach for Over 100 Years

Continental’s solid industrial tyres have been continually developed and manufactured in Korbach, Germany for over one hundred years alongside the regular implementation of process and product improvements. Now, the company says, a large step forward recently introduced in the site’s manufacturing processes “demonstrates Continental's technological leadership in the field of industrial tyres”.

Continental as a brand has worked hard to make itself synonymous with technological innovation across tyre segments, and the development engineers at Continental Industrial Tyres have always looked for ways to embody this characteristic. They created the first CSE solid tyre to fit on rims designed for industrial pneumatic tyres in 1965. The development of the Snap-In-Tyre (SIT) in 1978 produced a Super Elastic solid tyre that could be fitted quickly without the need for loose rim parts, the benefits of which are obvious – it saves both time and money. The Snap-In-Tyre design, Conti points out, is now considered a key milestone in the SE tyre sector and is now regarded as the patent solution for genuine time-saving. 

Korbach also introduced the CSEasy in 2006, which Continental says ushered in a new era in fitting technology – changing tyres without the need for a fitting press – reducing vehicle downtime to a matter of minutes. The facility supplies all CSE tyres to customers all around the world too, with the factory‘s five millionth CSE tyre being produced in 2004.

While product innovation is clearly a key goal of Continental’s Korbach facility, the production process for these tyres must also continuously evolve. The investments made in advanced technologies and production equipment in Korbach mean improved product quality in Continental’s tyres today, the manufacturer says. Exemplifying this concept is the introduction of new technology in the manufacturing of the load bearing base layer. The strong, dense compound is now embedded with a flat bead construction for optimum fit on the rim and to minimise slippage through a more even distribution of pressure over the base layer. 

This flat bead construction is just one process of many to be integrated into the now fully-automated production line at Korbach. As the only solid tyre production line offering this level of automation, Continental claims to be able to differentiate itself within the marketplace by offering each customer the same high quality product irrespective of time, day or month of production.

Robots have also been introduced to increase the safe handling of the delicate ‘green‘ – or pre-vulcanised – tyres through the initial stages of the production process including the winding of the base layers as well as the application of the bead wires. Another new process reduces the time required for vulcanisation which, depending on the size, material and weight, is now between 85 and 430 minutes at a temperature of approximately 130 degrees. 

These improvements made to the manufacturing process in Korbach mean that developers can look for further product optimisation improvements making sure that the benefits are passed on to the end user, says Conto.

Alongside around 3,000 industrial solid tyres, Korbach produces approximately 33,000 car tyres, 6,500 bicycle tyres and 650 motorcycle tyres a year as well as other technical products, such as industrial hoses. In order to achieve such levels of production, the Korbach factory employs up to 3,000 specialists.