Production of new aircraft radial tyres has begun at Bridgestone’s Tokyo Plant in August, reports the company following the completion of the facility’s initial phase. Once the Tokyo Plant is fully completed, which will likely occur by the end of 2011, Bridgestone estimates the factory’s overall production capacity of new aircraft tyres will be approximately 2.5 times the current level.
Employees at the Michelin Aircraft Tire Company (MATC) facility in North Carolina, USA recently took time out from their normal tyre building operations to celebrate the production of the plant’s three millionth aircraft tyre.
“The production of the three millionth tyre is an important milestone for everyone here at Norwood,” said facility manager Randy Stroman. “Everyone enjoyed a week-long celebration that included giveaways, promotions and an opportunity for each employee to sign the tyre.”
The first new recruits at Dunlop Aircraft Tyres’ new China retreading operation have travelled back to the People’s Republic after completing a training course in Birmingham. The China-based team, including six tyre production workers and a supervisor, completed the six-month course in preparation for the opening of the Dunlop Aircraft Tyres’ new Jinjiang facility.
Currently exhibiting at the Farnborough Airshow 2008, which runs until Sunday, Dunlop Aircraft Tyres has displayed its three new tyres, approved in March for the new Boeing 737NG, alongside two new main gear bias cross-ply tyres and a new radial-ply nose gear tyre.
Aviation news sources have noted that the massive backlog of orders for Boeing’s latest plane – not to mention the 2,500 already in service – means that Dunlop’s latest creations have enabled the company to improve its share in the medium-haul market sector.
Prices for Michelin aircraft tyres will increase by up to 9 per cent as of July 1, 2008. The company states this latest price rise is occurring because of continuing increases in raw material costs
The United States military, through its Defense Supply Center Richmond (DSCR) operation, awarded Michelin Aircraft Tire Co. a Best Value Medal Award at an honours dinner held on June 3. The bestowal of this award, says Michelin, is acknowledgement of the company as one of the US government’s best suppliers. Brett Carnes, director of North American military sales for Michelin Aircraft Tires, accepted the silver medal on behalf of Michelin from the commander of the supply centre, U.S Air Force Brigadier General Andrew E. Busch.
The U.S. military’s Best Value Medal, explains Michelin, is awarded to vendors that have demonstrated exceptional quality and delivery performance as measured by what is called the ‘Automated Best Value System’ (ABVS). The ABVS is a computerised system that collects a vendor’s past performance data and translates it into a numeric score ranging from zero to a perfect 100. Michelin scored 99.4 on this 100 point scale.
MRF Tyres, one of India’s leading tyre manufacturers, is planning to produce aircraft tyres for planes and helicopters. According to local news reports, MRF has taken the initiative following aircraft manufacturer Boeing’s decision to sign an agreement with Tata Automobile Limited (TAL) Manufacturing Solutions, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors to make structural components for the 787 Dreamliner. MRF is also said to be in the process of producing tyres for military helicopters.
Dunlop Aircraft Tyres, the world’s only specialist aircraft tyre manufacturer, today announced it has begun preliminary ground work investigations and held a traditional stone-laying ceremony on the site of its new retreading facility in China. The move follows the agreement of terms and signing of a contract between joint venture partners Dunlop Aircraft Tyres (63%), Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Limited (HAECO) (28%) and Taikoo (Xiamen) Aircraft Engineering Company Limited (TAECO) (9%).
Birmingham, UK-based Dunlop Aircraft Tyres will be the majority partner at the new facility in Jinjiang, Fujian Province. It is due be operational early next year as Dunlop Taikoo (Jinjiang) Aircraft Tyres Limited.
Birmingham-based Dunlop Aircraft Tyres has recruited a new operations director. Marc Jordan, who joins the company from Trelleborg Group in Germany, will be responsible for ensuring that sufficient new tyre capacity is in place to support the company’s international expansion plan. He will also work with a locally based general manager in China to ensure best practice procedures adopted in the UK are followed in Xiamen when Dunlop Aircraft Tyres’ new retreading facility becomes operational there in 2009.
During his career Jordan has held a number of senior operations management positions within the aerospace, automotive, manufacturing, marine, production and rail markets. While in his last role at Trelleborg Group, he won national industry awards for lean transformation and environmental excellence.
UK based manufacturer and retreader Dunlop Aircraft Tyres has appointed a new finance director and company secretary to assist with the company’s expansion plans. The former finance director at Honeywell subsidiary First Technology, Oliver Burns, will head a team of eight finance and information technology staff at the tyremaker’s Birmingham headquarters.
Bridgestone has reported that its aircraft radial tyres were those chosen for fitment to the first production model Airbus A380. The super sized airliner was delivered to Singapore Airlines and entered service on October 25, its maiden flight taking place on the Singapore to Sydney route. Subsequent A380 airliners shipped to global carriers will also come mounted with the tyres, which Bridgestone claims offer superb safety and fuel efficiency.
In order to accommodate takeoff and landing speeds of up to 370 km/h and takeoff gross weights of as much as 560 tons, Bridgestone manufactures aircraft tyres using what it calls its “Revolutionary Reinforced Radial” (RRR) design, a radial structure with high elastic modulus/strength cords. The construction of an RRR technology tyre includes an inner belt that minimises tyre expansion in the radial direction and an outer belt that resists external damage. By suppressing tread tension the RRR structure also reduces the possibility of damage from running over objects. Should the tyre be damaged, the structure minimises the possibility of tyre destruction through bursting or tread separation.
Taiwan’s Samson Machinery Inc., has enjoyed steady growth since its establishment in 1975 by Mr. Lin Kun-Te. During this time the company has acquired a high level of knowledge in the area of tyre manufacturing equipment. This knowledge, along with the experience gained through 32 years in the business, has been instrumental in facilitating the company’s expansion, especially during the last few years. In order to keep pace with customer demand Samson moved into a newer and larger premises in September 2006, and from this new location it continues to provide equipment to customers worldwide.
Today Samson supplies a full range of tyre building machinery suitable for large or small tyre manufacturers engaged in a range of market segments. The company’s main products include: Tyre building machines, band building machines, ply servicers, building drums & related accessories, tyre trimming machinery, green tyre splicing machines, curing presses, and horizontal ply auto cutting & splicing machines. Machinery that is suited to the production of most tyres, including bicycle, scooter, motorcycle, passenger car radial, light truck radial, SUV, truck & bus, industrial and OTR, even aircraft tyres and radial truck tyres can be ordered. Customers can order machinery for bias and radial, semi-steel or all-steel, small and large sizes.
Birmingham-based Dunlop Aircraft Tyres has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Limited (HAECO) and Taikoo (Xiamen) Aircraft Engineering Company Limited (TAECO) to establish a tyre retreading facility in Jinjiang, Fujian Province, China. It is intended that a joint venture will be formed with Dunlop Aircraft Tyres as the majority partner and the new facility to be operational in early 2009.
The new follows AAC Capital Partners’ (formerly the private equity business of ABN Amro) acquisition of 74.6 per cent of Dunlop Aircraft Tyres in May this year. The most recent announcement shows that predictions that the expansion in China would come to fruition 12 – 18 months after the sale are right on track. However, at the time of the sale of 74.6 per cent of Dunlop Aircraft Tyres in May, there were also suggestions of expansion in the US. No mention of the progress of these plans has yet been made.
Iran’s Polymer and Petrochemical Institute incorporated “highly friction-resistant” nanotechnology into the development of vehicle and aircraft tyres. According to a Meridian Institute report, Iranian researcher Mohammad Karrabi said: “In this method, the frictional resistance of tyres has been increased through calculating the mechanical characteristics of them. Lower rolling resistance and higher frictional resistance will lead to less fuel consumption.” He also said that the use of nanotechnology will help Iran’s automobile manufacturers compete in the market. The project, which was launched with support from the Presidential Office last year, will be completed by next year.
A new Bridgestone retreading facility for aircraft tyres celebrated its official opening on July 26. The plant, operated by Bridgestone Aircraft Tire Co. (China) Ltd. and located in Qingdao is intended to primarily meet the tyre requirements of China’s numerous airlines. The opening of the Qingdao facility sees the global number of Bridgestone aircraft tyre retreading facilities increase to five, the others being located in Japan, the US, Belgium and Hong Kong.
Bridgestone aircraft tyre operations are rounded out by its facility for manufacturing new aircraft radials in Kurume, Japan. Production in Kurume is set to rise dramatically upon the opening of its second plant on the site, which is scheduled to begin operation during the second half of 2008. Within three years this second plant will see Bridgestone’s new aircraft radial output double.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
