casings Archives - Page 6 of 10 - Tyrepress

Posts

Kwik-Fit Fleet Wins Fleet Award for ‘Green’ Focus

Amongst those recognised at the 2009 Van Fleet World Honours, announced in London on May 20, was Kwik-Fit Fleet, who walked away with the Environment Award. This accolade, which the company states is the first fleet recognition of its environmental strategy, follows activities in this area that include the opening of its Northamptonshire based National Distribution Centre in summer 2008.

The £10 million, 245,000 square foot complex stocks up to 300,000 tyres across up to 650 different sizes with the guarantee of next day delivery to Kwik-Fit’s 670 centres and more than 200 mobile fitting units. According to Kwik-Fit Fleet, the benefits delivered by the new centre are varied and include a number of environmental pluses. One example is the ‘reverse logistics’ process that has been introduced: Kwik-Fit’s 69-vehicle truck fleet – after delivering tyres to its centres or its five distribution hubs across the UK –returns with removed tyre casings and scrap catalytic converters.

22nd May 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Retreading ‘Definitely Worth Considering’, says Conti

Numerous companies have experienced a drop in orders since the start of the financial crisis, and this downturn in business has in many cases been paired with rising costs. Economising is therefore of the utmost importance in 2009. But where should we start? Continental is convinced that truck tyres can still offer the transport industry considerable savings potential in overall operating costs. A second tyre life almost doubles the mileage and reduces costs by up to fifty per cent.

8th April 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Maxxis On the Look Out For Industrial Tyre Distributors

Following the launch of its new skid steer tyres last year, Maxxis International UK is reportedly keen to appoint additional distributors to help develop business opportunities in a number of heavy industry sectors. Both the M9000 MT Loader, which is designed for use on heavyweight forklift trucks, and the M8000 Tuff-Guard – developed for use in extra heavy duty applications such as excavation – are designed to deliver superior traction and long life thanks to “extra strong casings, stronger sidewalls and specially formulated rubber compounds.”

The Maxxis M9000 MT Loader features extra-thick sidewalls, which offer improved puncture resistance while the tread compound is designed to enhance durability, helping to prevent down time and increase productivity. There is also a special rim guard for better tyre and wheel protection. It is available in a range of sizes from 10-16.5 8 PR to 15-19.5 12 PR.

13th January 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Bigwheel OTR Reports 57-inch Retread Breakthrough

Big Wheel OTR (BWOTR) is laying claim to being the world’s first retreader to successfully pre-cure retread 4000R57-sized OTR tyres. “We take great pride in the appearance and quality of our pre-cured retread, because it speaks of the expert skill and infinite care we take in ensuring that these liners perform as promised”, declared managing director Albert Ngok.

BWOTR’s successful retreading of 4000R57-sized OTR tyre reflects the company’s determination to provide solutions to large OTR tyre shortage. To gauge the tyres performance, BWOTR enlisted the help of its Australian distributor, Earthmover Tyres International (Earthmover).

26th November 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

T&A's exclusive first look at Kwik-Fit’s £10 million National Distribution Centre

Before Kwik-Fit invested in a National Distribution Centre, there was a problem with tyre deliveries. All of the fast-fit chain’s main suppliers were delivering to all of its 670-odd active branches two to three times a week, which was expensive for the delivering manufacturers and disruptive to the Kwik-Fit branches. The answer? Build a specialist centre in cooperation with a leading third party logistics supplier and deliver all the brands in one go. Keen to get an effective new service up and running as soon as possible, Kwik-Fit GB Ltd appointed CEVA Logistics to manage and operate the new Corby-based National Distribution Centre (NDC) and its transport operation in June, before stocking up the site and getting systems up to speed this summer. In October, four months and somewhere in the order of £10 million of investment later, Tyres & Accessories met with Kwik-Fit Fleet sales director, Mike Wise; head of supply chain, Neil Arnott; and Toby Leybourne product director-tyres for an exclusive tour of the state-of-the-art site.

Looking back to the 1970s and 1980s Kwik-Fit sold just 25 different sizes. As anyone in the trade knows, today it is a completely different story and there are up to 700 different size and brand products in the premium segment alone. Something that, according T&A’s Kwik-Fit tour guides, is “a monster to control.” At the same time the floor and storage space available to individual Kwik-Fit branches remains pretty much the same as it was two decades ago. Toby Leybourne summarized the pragmatic thinking behind the project like this: “Having 90 depots inside the M25, for example, means logistics is key, but now Kwik-Fit’s nightmare has become an opportunity.” Head of Kwik-Fit Fleet, Mike Wise added: “Virtually every new vehicle launched comes to the market with a new tyre size…The proliferation of tyre sizes has made it a necessity that Kwik-Fit has its own distribution operation and is not reliant on tyre manufacturers to deliver tyres to centres, which can take several days.”

17th November 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Double Coin Makes Retread Specs Available in US

Double Coin Holdings Ltd. has made retread specifications for Double Coin radial truck and bus tyre casings available in the US. Details include the buffing radius and width for 15 to 24.5-inch rim widths. The specifications also include data for tube type, tubeless, conventional and low-profile tyres. Double Coin compiled the data by working with several strategic retreaders in North America.

Online reports state that the Double Coin truck tyre warranty includes all the normal guarantees, plus a 50 per cent free replacement option. Crucially for retreaders it also includes a casing warranty throughout the life of the second retread.

16th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Precision Measuring Saves Money

Danish company Re-Solution claims to have developing a gadget that could save retreaders as much as 1 euro per casing. BGuide is a high-precision measuring instrument designed to calculate the precise distance from the tyre’s surface to the steel belt, even when the tyre is rotating.

With 30 measured values per second and a resolution of 0.1mm, the BGuide can give 100 per cent coverage of the tyre’s surface in five seconds, providing a continuous digital readout. As well as revealing any concealed damage or separations, the equipment allows retreaders to optimise their buffing and thus save both time and cushion gum. By “fine tuning” the applied layer of cushion gum by a mere 0.2mm, says Re-Solution, the retreader will save 180 grams on a 315/80 R22.5 casing. This equates to 1.05 euros per casing, which means that, if you process 12,000 casings a year, your annual savings would be 12,600 euros, the company maintains.

14th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Dunlop Launches Health and Safety Plan After Accident

Goodyear Dunlop has announced the launch of a global health and safety plan after a worker was injured in an accident at the company’s Wolverhampton plant. Goodyear Dunlop pleaded guilty to breaching the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act in a hearing before Birmingham magistrates at the beginning of August. The manufacturer was fined £13,500 and ordered to pay £2,888.04 in costs plus £4000 in damages.

Goodyear Dunlop’s main response has come in the form of it new “No one gets hurt” plan, which includes safety awareness training, and risk assessments that are designed to lead to improvements in processes and equipment usage. “[Goodyear Dunlop] has a positive commitment towards health and safety and continues to strive towards a culture and environment in which all its employees can work safely. We will learn from the findings of this case and continue to improve towards achieving our objective of No-one Gets Hurt,” a company spokesperson said in a statement.

14th August 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Uzmai Exhibit Maitech Brand Extensions

The manufacturer behind the technical all steel radial OTR tyre brand Maitech, Uzmai presented its latest extensions to the range at Reifen 2008. The show saw the 2008 launch of the company’s new range of High Speed Crane tyres, the first being a 445/95R25 (1600R25) version, while the company showed its UM£ and UM5 ranges – suitable for wheeled loaders or articulated dumpers and loaders, dozers or terminal tractors respectively. Uzmai offers its Maitech UM3 tyres in a range of six sizes and the L5 in 23.5R25, 26.5R25 and 29.5R25, all of which follow Maitech’s all-steel radial design philosophy.

8th July 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Rösler Gruppe Promotes ‘Re-Manufactured’ Tyres

With a freshly renewed corporate identity in hand, the Dortmund-based Rösler Gruppe, was primarily promoting the company’s OTR retread technology in Essen. But with pioneering developments in its Zeus tyre-fill division, the company certainly has more than one string to its bow.

The Rösler Gruppe’s Schelkmann brand is a name that is associated with premium pre-cure OTR tyre retreading. At a global level, the SPR (Schelkmann-Precured-Retreading) system currently gives the company a technological lead in supplying retreads for large EM tyres (25 to 27 inches). This still relatively new technology has already won favour in the mining industry, since it is extremely reliable and guarantees an extremely high level of safety. Tyres retreaded using the SPR system are designed to hold their own against premium new tyres in terms of service life, TKPH value and payload. In addition, this method significantly reduces costs per operating hour of these tyres in comparison with new tyres and other retread methods.

7th July 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Dunlop Makes Six-Figure Investment in Wolverhampton Site

Goodyear Dunlop Tyres has announced that further ‘substantial’ investment will be made in its Wolverhampton truck tyre retreading facility. The company has just taken delivery of two new state of the art SDS Shearography Machines, representing a six-figure investment.

The Wolverhampton factory, which employs over 400 people, is home to the company’s Next Tread operations, which specialises in retreading used truck tyre casings. The company states its latest investment will add to the high quality levels of the company’s Next Tread products.

3rd July 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

3 Year Agreement Sees Vellco Continue Michelin Casing Relationship

Vellco Limited has signed a new three year agreement with Michelin in the UK to collect, sort and grade a significant proportion of the truck tyre casings arising within Michelin’s UK truck tyre division. This agreement is expected to produce a substantial number of truck tyre casings annually for Vellco’s operations, including truck tyre casings from all designated ATS Euromaster Centres.

“Michelin has worked in partnership with Vellco for a number of years now, and this new agreement demonstrates our commitment to a stable and sustained partnership arrangement for the future,” said Chris Bloor, commercial director for Michelin UK. Vellco managing director Chris Fell added “we are absolutely delighted to sign this agreement with Michelin. We are committed to giving a professional service throughout the entire Vellco operation, and this is borne out by the confidence that Michelin has shown by utilising Vellco, and our ability to deliver what they need.”

17th June 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Brenno Benaglia Appointed New BIPAVER President

BIPAVER, the European federation of tyre retreaders’ associations, has named Brenno Benaglia as its new President. The decision was made on 23 May during the Reifen 2008 exhibition in Essen, Germany. During the meeting, a number of changes were made to the Board of the Federation, in line with the organisation’s constitution.

Brenno Benaglia, represents both AIRP (Italy) and the Marangoni Group and replaces Peter Hülzer of BRV (Germany), who becomes one of the Federation’s two Vice-Presidents. Also appointed Vice-President was Jan Driessen, Chairman of the Retreading Sector in VACO (Netherlands).

Retiring from the board was Richard O’Connell, representing the RMA (UK). BIPAVER Secretary Ruud Spuijbroek thanked O’Connell for his services as President between 2006 and 2007 and as a Vice-President during the past year as well as for his valuable contribution to the Federation’s Technical Committee.

During the General Assembly BIPAVER members approved a change in the Federation’s Constitution, which will allow Federation officers to serve two years in office as opposed to one year, as was previously specified in the constitution. This means that Brenno Benaglia will now serve as BIPAVER President from 2008-2010.

In his acceptance speech Brenno Benaglia commented: “Retreading is going through a complex period and BIPAVER now needs to carry on what it’s doing through strong co-operation with those new tyre producers, who are committed to producing retreadable casings. BIPAVER is an open and independent association and the ideas we have developed over the past year will be framework for our future work together.”

29th May 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti Shod Fleets Get 22 per cent More Mileage

Coninental Tyres is claiming that correctly managed fleets running on the German manufacturer’s products gain 22 per cent more mileage in comparison with competing tyres. The claim comes as the main result of a comparative test of Continental tyres carried out in collaboration with an independent coach operator.

The test saw Continental tyres fitted all-round on one of six Scania luxury touring coaches in the 12-vehicle fleet of Worcester operator Commandery Coaches. These were then carefully monitored alongside another premium brand of tyres on an identical coach.

On the coach fitted with Continentals the tyres on the steer axle required changing at 133,000 kilometres and those on the drive axle at 205,000 kilometres, making a total for all six tyres of 1,086,000 kilometres. By comparison, the competitor brand of tyre needed changing at 116,000 kilometres on the front and 165,000 kilometres on the rear, making a total of 892,000 kilometres. Taking into account the lower price of the Continentals, the results showed a significant saving in overall tyre running costs. Other factors were also analysed, including the effect on fuel economy, noise and road-handling, all of which proved either positive or to have a neutral effect.

12th May 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Re-Tools Truck Tyre Site

Goodyear has reworked its commercial tyre Web site – www.goodyear.com/truck – making it easier for fleet maintenance managers and owners to take advantage of the company’s various educational tools and data, the tyremaker said. Steve McClellan, Goodyear vice president of commercial tyre systems, said the company is moving “more of its process controls online, and a new, more-relevant Web site is an obvious addition.” The site features a dealer locator; allows users to find tyres by application, wheel position or size; fleet management tools; information about Goodyear’s emergency roadside assistance program; information about software and Web-based tools to help track tyre costs, tyre performance and retreading; and tyre technology updates.

10th April 2008/by Tyrepress Editors