(Akron/Tire Review) Tensions in Charlotte, North Carolina, are rising as the head of Continental Tire North America (CTNA) saying the company may close its HQ plant and the United Steelworkers (USW) claiming the tyremaker hasn’t provided information to allow it to “develop a plan to salvage manufacturing at the Charlotte plant.”
Finnish tyre manufacturer Nokian recently released the country king agricultural trailer tyre. With the launch of the new product, Nokian is aiming, like other manufacturers, to satisfy the demands farmers and contractors that need tyres that can cope with increased load capacity.
(Akron/Tire Review) American Tire Distributors (ATD) relocated its Salt Lake City operations into a new distribution centre in the city’s Ninigret Complex. The 115,000-square-foot facility nearly quadruples ATD’s distribution capacity, replacing its former 30,000-square-foot location in the Utah city.
(India/Rubber Asia) JK Industries Ltd has reported a net profit of 170 million rupees on a gross turnover of 24 billion (£294.7 million) for the year ended 30 September. JK recorded a net profit of 120 million rupees for the same period last year. Tyre exports stood at 3.82 billion rupees (£46.2 million).
(India/Rubber Asia) The off-the-road (OTR) tyre makers in India are refusing to take fresh orders “at least for the next few years” in the wake of an avalanche of orders hitting them. The acute shortage of tyres, especially meant for heavy-duty dumpers, raises a serious threat to one of India’s core sectors, the mining industry, especially coal.
(Akron/Tire Review) Toyo Tire North America Inc. (TNA) officially opened its first North American tyre production facility this morning in White, Georgia. The opening ceremonies were attended by Georgia state and regional officials, Toyo and Nitto tyre dealers, and Bartow County, Georgia., business and community leaders.
Four Falcon Tyre board members have resigned, only days after the company was bought by the Ruia group. The company informed Bombay Stock Exchange that Vidya Manohar Chhabria, Komal C Wazir, Mohan M Thakur and Deepak Chaudhuri (the former executive director) had all resigned. The resignations took effect on 1 December, it emerged.
Michelin is planning to expand a Lexington County, South Carolina plant that makes large earthmover tyres, the associated has press reported. With reference to the current earthmover tyre shortage, Michelin said the company is investing in a South Carolina facility “west of Columbia.” He said capacity will be added there but did not discuss the size of an expansion nor a definitive timetable.
French manufacturer Michelin claims to have reinvented the truck tyre. And following development after development over the years, this is no mean feat. According to the manufacturer, Michelin’s new Durable Technologies will offer improved mileage, payload and load capacity including gains of up to 50 per cent compared to “more traditional solutions.”
This enormous improvement is said to be down to two technological families – redesigned tread patterns including patented new siping techniques and improved tyre architecture design using Infinicoil technologt.
Michelin has labelled the tread side of its development “Tread Regeneration Experience” or “TRE-X.” This is based on two patented developments in siping technology. “Raindrop” sipes, are intended to produce a self-regenerating tread design and therefore long lasting grip throughout the whole life of the tyre, while “Double Wave” sipes, offer a three-dimensional interlocking design, making tread blocks more rigid. Michelin claims this second type of siping optimises mileage whilst retaining excellent grip.
The next development is said to be an innovation in tyre construction. Michelin have called this Infinicoil technology so apart from using a single wound piece of tyre cord, therefore avoided overlaps, this means the company is able to develop new tyre dimensions.
The Michelin XDN 2 GRIP, the presented at the new technology’s launch, is the first tyre to use “Michelin Durable Technologies” regenerating tread design. According to the manufacturer, these innovations will offer major benefits for the road transport industry, whilst considerably reducing the environmental impact of tyres by lengthening tyre life.
Michelin is not only integrating these innovations into the design of its truck tyres, but is take significant steps to introduce the new products to the trucking industry. The Michelin Group says it is going to invest 400 million euros over five years in order to do this.
Longer ‘TRE-X’
Michelin’s “Raindrop” sipes are so-called because raindrop shaped cylindrical channels are drilled through the centre of each tread block. When the tread is two-thirds worn, the channels gradually open to create new sipes, which are said to deliver excellent grip in challenging weather conditions right until the tyre is retreaded. In order to ensure continued long tread life, Michelin Remix will also incorporate the new tread technologies.
In comparison to its predecessor, the XDN GRIP, Michelin says the new XDN 2 GRIP equipped with Raindrop sipes offers 25 per cent more mileage. But there are also advantages for grip. When the tread is two-thirds worn, it Michelin engineers claim the tyre still offers 15 per cent more grip on snow and ice. According to the company, the effect is even more pronounced in the wet when the emergence of the Raindrop sipes means that the tyre could deliver 30 per cent more grip.
Michelin’s patented new double wave sipes utilise a three-dimensional interlocking desing. By working both horizontally and vertically, the manufacturer claims double locking sipes offer more grip and longer life than traditional tread patterns.
On entering the contact patch, the double wave sipes reportedly maintain their “clawing” effect at the edge of the contact patch thanks to the presence of many ridges. Inside the contact patch the three-dimensional structure limits tread block movement, maintaining optimal rigidity to reduce wear and increase mileage.
(Akron/Tire Review) As was first reported by Tire Review, Michelin North America (MNA) plans to invest $80 million over the next six years to upgrade equipment and increase capacity at its semi-finished rubber production facilities in Sandy Springs and Starr, South Carolina.
Swedish company Hedbergs has been in the tyre business for over 50 years and started retreading tyres as early as 1958. In 2001 the company decided to switch to the Bandag retreading process.
Demand for Bandag retreads grew rapidly from the outset, propelling production at the Hedbergs shop to maximum capacity in just three and a half years. One of the reasons for this was the opening of the Öresund Bridge between Copenhagen and Malmö, in 2000.
Used tyre recycling technology has scooped the Invention of the Year award on ABC TV’s The New Inventors.
Developed by Gold Coast inventor John Dobozy, the Melectra Tyre Recycling technology integrates mechanical, chemical and microwave treatment to break down tyres into their base materials – oil, carbon, rubber granules, steel and plastic fibres, recycling 100 per cent of a tyre without waste, residue or emissions.
Beissbarth is at the forefront of catering for the growing interest in Automated Test Lanes (ATL), says the company’s UK managing director Philip Hodges.
Quality and choice are the watchwords for the Beissbarth Testlane system which features advanced technology pioneered by the company. The range of models SL600, Screen-testline 7000, Screen-testline 7060 and the TL600 have been a huge success in Ireland and are having a significant impact on the developing UK market, says Hodges.
Continental AG has announced that it will reduce the number of staff working at its Hanover-Stöcken plant by 10 per cent, by the end of 2006. The job losses will affect 320 tyre production employees.
“The unexpectedly weak growth in passenger tyre sales…left us no other choice in the end but to schedule discontinuation of passenger tyre production in Stöcken as of 31 December 2006 and to demonstrate cost-optimised flexibility at other plants by cutting back the number of shifts,” said Manfred Wennemer, chairman of the executive board of Continental AG and board member responsible for the Passenger and Light Truck Tires division.
Continental AG will make a decision in the next fortnight about whether to cut 10 per cent of jobs (320 positions) at its tyre factory in Hanover-Stoecken, chief executive Manfred Wennemer told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. “The fact is we have an over-capacity of tyre (production),” Wennemer said. “The costs at Stoecken are higher than at any other plant in Western Europe. We are not talking 10 cents higher, but more than a euro higher per tyre produced,” Wennemer said.
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