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Trelleborg and the Tractor of the Year awards will come together again in the following year, strengthening their strategic partnership for the co-marketed event, “Tractor of the Year 2016: Let the challenge begin”. The event will take place at Palazzo Di Varignana, in Bologna, on 18-19 May.
Retreading capacity at Continental’s Hannover-Stöcken site, located near the German tyre maker’s headquarters, has grown faster than many anticipated. Speaking with Tyres & Accessories, the director in charge of Continental’s Retread Business shares that the second expansion phase that began late last year will be ready during the course of 2015. And Christian Sass points out that while this second round of work will exclusively focus on furthering Continental’s mould cure retreading capacity, this doesn’t in any way mean pre-cure retreading and the company’s ContiTread partners are not being looked after.
Some retire at the age of 65 – but Volkswagen’s van range has no intention on accepting a gold watch and taking up gardening. The first VW bus rolled off the company’s production line 65 years ago this week, and five generations later a total of 11 million ‘T-series’ vehicles have been built. The sixth generation will be launched this year.
Continental is gearing up to increase its research and development workforce by 15 per cent at its Púchov site in Slovakia after the official opening of its expanded facility there. The company held an opening ceremony at its new Tires Technology Center today in the presence of Slovak Republic Prime Minster Róbert Fico, Continental Tire Division head Nikolai Setzer and representatives from local management and the workforce. The additional research and development capacity at Púchov was realised through a €7.5 million investment.
It’s been a year since Tyres & Accessories first met the recently-appointed head of Giti Tire’s new R&D Centre Europe. At the time, R&D director Stefan Fischer shared the tyre maker’s plans and showed off the still largely-empty premises where specialists would soon be hard at work. A lot has changed in 12 months: Upon returning to the Hannover, Germany-based facility, we saw it was well and truly up and running and, in the important area of original equipment development, even further established than originally planned.
With recent upgrades complete, Michelin gave Tyres & Accessories a tour of its fully-automated Remix retread remanufacturing plant in Stoke-on-Trent.
Foot for foot, Michelin’s Campbell Road, Stoke-on-Trent Remix plant is one of the smallest in the Michelin group, but it is arguably also the amongst most modern and most flexible and most productive. Built at the height of Michelin’s industrial activities in Stoke, the Remix site was originally a manufacturing plant for new truck tyres. In 1968 Remix capabilities were developed and in 2000, the French tyre maker’s Encore process was added. Nowadays the Stoke location is Michelin’s UK headquarters and is therefore home to hundreds of executive, sales, marketing and administration-based employees. Across the road from the offices, over 350 are directly involved in the manufacturing process. New tyre production left decades ago, but Stoke is still a bustling centre of market leading retreading activity.
Of the 18 tyres GT Radial is presenting at the IAA Commercial Vehicles show, 11 are on display for the first time, including the recently-launched GSW226 winter steer axle and GTL925 low platform trailer pattern tyres.
When Tyres & Accessories visited Giti Tire’s new European Research and Development Centre last October, it learnt that the facility near Hannover, Germany was one of two new centres the tyre maker was setting up. The other was in the United States. Now, after almost a year in operation, Giti Tire has provided an update on what it calls the Giti Tire R&D Center for North America, an operation located in Uniontown, Ohio, just south of ‘tyre town’ Akron.
According to a German newspaper, Continental plans to step down as a World Cup sponsor. The Hannoversche Allgemeine (HAZ) writes that in future the tyre maker intends instead to solely sponsor regional confederations, such as Europe’s UEFA. This change to the company’s multi-million commitment is also said to apply to the next World Cup. “We have nothing more to do with the coming events in Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022,” the newspaper quoted a Continental spokesperson as saying.
What do you do if you’re a World Cup sponsor and it isn’t feasible to fly all your customers over to Brazil? You can always bring Brazil to your customers. This is the approach Continental has taken, and over a three-week period the tyre and automotive systems manufacturer is inviting dealers and other guests to its own slice of South American paradise, some 30 miles north of the German city of Hannover.
Following a two-year planning and construction phase, Continental reports the successful implementation of the first operational phase at its ContiLifeCycle facility in Hannover, Germany. “Following the official plant opening last December, the series production of retreaded tyres began in the plant at the start of the year,” reported the tyre maker on 13 June. “With this, important goals in regards to product characteristics have already been achieved. Furthermore, additional process-related enhancements are expected due to ongoing process improvements.”
This year, Continental expects to sell a total of 11 million more tyres in the European and the NAFTA replacement markets than in 2013. Speaking at the company’s press day in Hannover, Germany today, Continental CEO Dr. Elmar Degenhart stated that the tyre maker anticipates an increase of two per cent in these two regions, markets he said were “very important to our tyre replacement business”. He added that together with further growth effects in Asia and South America, Continental is looking forward to its global replacement tyre business rising three per cent this year. In regards to the original equipment segment, the CEO said Continental expects global production of passenger cars, SUVs and light commercial vehicles to increase by about two per cent.
The winners of the Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence 2014 have been announced, and Continental has walked away with awards in two of the five regular categories. In addition to being named Tire Manufacturer of the Year, the German firm was recipient of the Tire Manufacturing Innovation of the Year award for its ContiLifeCycle facility in Hannover. Other winners included Bridgestone, VMI and Sumitomo Rubber Industries. The awards were presented at a gala dinner held during this week’s Tire Technology Expo in Cologne.
The Contidrom test facility operated by Continental near its Hannover headquarters in Germany has been named ‘Proving Ground of the Year 2013’ by Automotive Testing Technology International magazine. The 12-person judging panel presiding over the 2013 awards are said to have been particularly impressed by the Automated Indoor Braking Analyzer (AIBA) facility, which opened at the Contidrom site in autumn 2012.
Didn’t know today was World Quality Day? Neither did we. Nevertheless, the United Nations-established event has been held since 1990 and aims to increase worldwide awareness of the important contribution quality makes to national and organisational growth and prosperity. Continental says 16 of its Tire division locations around the world are participating in the day; under the slogan “Continuously Striving for Best in Class in Quality, employees will organise events and activities in order to raise quality awareness.
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