Awards
Got an original idea for a workshop tool? OTC, an SPX brand, has launched a new Inventors website developed to attract tool inventors and provide a means to submit new tool inventions for review. The site – www.otctools.com/inventionsubmission.php – simplifies the communication between automotive tool inventors and OTC engineers to stimulate innovative ideas and develop new tools for the automotive industry.
Leading companies and individuals involved with end of life tyres are to have their efforts recognised by the industry. The second Michelin Innovation Award will be presented at the Tyre Recovery Association’s (TRA) annual dinner on Friday 17 June. The award will be presented to the company or person judged to have made the most significant innovation in this key area of the industry.
Pirelli reports it recently won the “best marketing” category of the 2011 China Auto Aftersales Summit Forum awards – an award the tyre maker describes as “one of the most influential awards in the auto industry.” In total, five categories of award were announced at the forum, which is hosted by the China Automobile Manufacturers Association, China Automotive Engineers Society, China International Trade Committee Automotive Branch, China Automotive Technology and Research Center and Motor Trend magazine.
RSM Tenon, the company responsible for administrating Envirotyre, a Carlisle-based company specialising in the processing and reclamation of waste tyres, has confirmed that Envirotyre is in administration and that an asset sale has been initiated. The administrators also confirmed that the business has ceased trading and all 30 jobs have been made redundant.
Envirotyre based in Carlisle is not to be confused with Envirotyre UK Ltd based in Boston, which serves the tyre industry (collection and recycling of all waste tyres) in Central and Eastern England. Following the initial reports of the administration of its Carlisle-based namesake, directors of Envirotyre UK wrote to Tyres & Accessories explaining that the Boston-based business “is in no way connected to Envirotyre Ltd based in Cumbria.” This Central and Eastern English business run by Envirotyre UK Ltd “continues to trade normally” according to company director Richard King.
The North of England and Scotland’s largest tyre collection firm, Envirotyre, has gone into administration according to various reports. Based on the Kingmoor Industrial Estate in Carlisle, the company provides tyre disposal services to around 1,500 tyre outlets across the region, and was the recipient of the 2010 TAFF Environment Award. Local news source, Carlisle’s News & Star says that the company’s administrators RSM Tenon is urging interested buyers to come forward for the company’s assets, valued at £1.822 million at the beginning of 2010. The company also possesses the UK licence for the Compactyre technology, a “patented, hydraulically-driven compactor that punctures and compresses a tyre to less than one-quarter of its original size”, making waste tyres easier to handle.
Long established as a leading UK tyre distributor, and named Tyre Wholesaler of the Year at the NTDA Tyre and Fast Fit Awards 2010, Stapleton’s reports it has continued to place an emphasis on customer needs in 2011. This emphasis includes a focus on the company’s product portfolio and in ensuring the needs of both large and small van operators are catered for. The result, says Stapleton’s, is an even broader range that encompasses all van tyre sizes – including premium brands as well as a comprehensive range of mid-price and budget products. The company plans to continue developing its van tyre sector further still throughout the remainder of 2011 in line with its overriding ‘working for the customer’ philosophy.
Chelmsford mechanic John Tinham has been named the winner of Top Technician 2011, winning the prize a second time after his victory in 2005. Tinham won the prize after completing a series of online, practical and written tests set by chief judge Ian Gillgrass, accreditation manager at the Institute of the Motor Industry and his team of expert judges including 2008 Top Technician winner Mark Banks and Delphi trainers Rob Lewis and Tim Roberts. The annual competition aims to recognise and reward the best automotive technicians in the UK.
Dunlop Aircraft Tyres has been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the international trade category, following six consecutive years of growth in its international sales. Based in Birmingham, and with a rich history spanning over 100 years DATL’s chairman Ian Edmondson expressed the company’s satisfaction with the reception of the prestigious award: “We are delighted that our achievements have been recognised with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise. It is a great honour for both the company and the people that work here.”
The British Franchisers Association has announced a shortlist of 13 franchisors for the 2011 bfa HSBC Franchisor of the Year Awards, supported by Express Newspapers. The finalists were selected from entries spanning multiple sectors, business size and locations across the UK and include online tyre operation etyres nominated under the brand builder of the year award.
Goodyear’s EfficientGrip tyre has been awarded The Green Innovation Award by GreenWorks, a Luxembourg platform dedicated to companies sensitive to environmental impact and initiatives that favour sustainable development. “This award values all the efforts the Goodyear Innovation Centre, Luxemburg (GIC*L) team has made to reduce the CO2 footprint with innovative technologies applied not only to the EfficientGrip tyre, but to all our newly developed tyres,” said Marc Junio, general director of GIC*L. “Such innovative technologies are required in light of the upcoming EU regulations, which require tyre labelling containing fuel efficiency, noise and wet performance information as of 2012.”
Triangle Group, one of the largest tyre makers in China and arguably the largest producer of radial OTR tyres in the country, is celebrating winning a SQEP platinum supplier award from well-known off-road vehicle manufacturer Caterpillar.
Global automotive parts manufacturer Delphi has become the official Automotive Technology Partner of the World Rally Championship, the company has announced in a press release. The company believes that the sponsorship deal will reaffirm its commitment to motorsport, while presenting a “strong 360° communication platform” to promote its products and services to the aftermarket. It says the series will help showcase its products and service solutions and promote the capabilities of its expanding Delphi Service Centre network.
At the Ford Motor Company’s annual World Excellence Awards, held on March 16, Cheng Shin Rubber was honoured by the vehicle manufacturer with a Gold Award, the highest recognition to Ford’s global suppliers. The Maxxis brand manufacturer was one of only 15 Gold Award recipients out of the 1,500 or so suppliers Ford obtains components from around the world and the only tyre maker amongst the 15. Wheel manufacturer Ronal also received a Gold Award, while Hayes Lemmerz was one of 26 Silver Award recipients.
Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a group of four men working for Yokohama Rubber developed a bead filler compound for high performance tyres based on polymerised cardanol, a chemical derived from liquid extracted out of cashew nut shells. Cashew based products were already in use to improve bleeding on the surface of green rubber, but the cardanol based product developed by Shineru Shinoda, Masayoshi Daio, Hideki Ishida and Tetsuji Kawazura providing an extremely high hardness after vulcanisation while at the same time keeping the viscosity of the compound low during processing. Some two decades later, on February 4, 2011, the Yokohama Rubber team’s efforts were acknowledged with their receipt of the “Mortimer T. Harvey Award 2010” from Cardolite Corporation, a leading manufacturer of cashew nutshell liquid products.
Every year for the almost two decades General Motors has acknowledged its best global automotive suppliers at its Supplier of the Year awards. These awards recognise superior performance in four key areas, namely innovative quality, superior quality, outstanding launch support and competitive total enterprise cost. On twelve prior occasions Bridgestone Corporation has been bestowed an award, and at the 19th annual awards ceremony on March 10 thirteen proved to be a lucky number for the tyre maker – Takashi Urano, vice president and senior officer of Bridgestone Corporation, accepted the tyre maker’s thirteenth award on behalf of the company.
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