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Bandvulc Retreader Best in the Country

A Bandvulc employee has scored the highest mark in the country for Retread Process Workship Practice. Justin Holloway was one of eight from the Ivybridge-based company that successfully completed the City & Guilds course. The eight employees started the course in September 2008 with weekly in-house tuition and self study covering all 12 sections of the syllabus. The course ran until April 2009 and included all areas within the retread process from initial inspection to final inspection, quality, health & safety and rubber technology.

Participants in these courses, which Bandvulc has run for the last 15 years, include employees from all areas of the company. As well as classroom tuition time is also spent on factory floor where they get ‘hands on’ experience in activities such as patch repairing a tyre. They also gain a greater understanding of damaged tyres, reasons for removal and load and speed ratings, to name but a few. Even those not directly involved in the retreading process benefit greatly from the course. For example, staff in Bandvulc Tyre Contracts find the knowledge they acquire about narratives and terminology enables them to converse more fully with service providers.

8th July 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Dunlop Announces New Scotland Logistics Provider

Goodyear Dunlop’s Truck Business Unit this week announced a new strategic partnership with McConechy’s Tyre and Exhaust Centres. Under the partnership agreement, McConechy’s will become the group’s truck tyre logistics provider for independent dealers throughout Scotland. The partnership is, comments Goodyear Dunlop, the final piece of the jigsaw in its tyre delivery system. McConechy’s will join truck tyre specialists Bandvulc, who cover England and Wales, and Goodyear Dunlop’s factory direct delivery system to service the whole of the UK.

7th July 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

B.F. s.r.l. Increases Production Capacity

Since 2003 B.F. s.r.l. has been one of the leading producers of car balance weights using tin and zinc in compliance with European directive 2000/53/EC. Recently, development of the factory’s clip plant has enabled the production capacity to be greatly increased.

At Autopromotec B.F.’s representative, M. Prestini advised T&A, “The company has always followed a practice of using a plastic coating for weights. This procedure was established initially to cover the balancing weights sold to Nordic countries where resistance to corrosion was paramount. With the introduction of zinc balance weights, as a replacement for lead, the company carried out numerous evaluation tests and using the results from this, coupled with the knowledge and experience gained from our many years in the wheel weights industry. It was obvious that zinc weights also needed to be coated.

“One of the strongest reasons for using a plastic coating on zinc weights is in order to avoid the possibility of a rogue electrical charge when an uncoated weight contacts the alloy wheel, the weight is likely, in a very short space of time, become completely oxidized. B.F. fully respects the standards for wheel weights required by car manufacturers, to meet a minimum of 500 hours saline fog test resistance.”

7th July 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Fulda Factory Receives Second Bomb Threat

Production at Goodyear Dunlop’s Fulda factory in central Germany had barely began to return to half-normal on Tuesday June 30 when the plant received a second bomb threat. The police was called and again the site was sealed off to minimise danger to employees and suppliers. Whether the caller is the same man alleged to have called a day earlier, causing production to stop for twelve hours, is not clear.

30th June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Social Measures for Conti Clairoix Employees Outlined in Agreement

On Friday June 25 the four parties involved in talks over Continental’s Clairoix tyre factory in France met in Paris to sign an agreement on the course of future negotiations. Representatives from the French Government, Conti’s French and German management and employee representatives signed their names on a document based upon the preliminary agreement concluded on June 6. The signing of this agreement is, says Continental, an “important step for all the employees as this document includes the main negotiated social measures of the jobs safeguard plan” as well as the details of their implementation.

29th June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Michelin Workers Strike Against Noyelles-les-Seclin Plant Closure

Michelin’s Noyelles-les-Seclin factory in northern France was reportedly brought to a standstill on June 29 by striking workers protesting against plans to close the site next year. This news was published by the AFP press service based upon information provided by Force Ouvrière union delegate Gilles Cocquerez; according to Cocquerez, ninety per cent of staff at the plant near Lille went out on strike, and between 150 and 200 people staged a march through the town centre. A spokeswoman for Michelin confirmed that the factory’s production had indeed come to a halt.

29th June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Bomb Scare at Goodyear’s Fulda Factory

Goodyear reports that a factory belonging to its German subsidiary was subject to a bomb scare on June 29. The company’s Fulda facility in central Germany received an anonymous threat at 11.00am, and police were notified. Goodyear states that at this stage the caller’s genuineness cannot be ascertained, however both the police and Goodyear Dunlop are taking appropriate measures and are boosting security at the site. As part of a range of preventative measures to ensure the safety of employees and neighbouring residents, the Fulda plant was evacuated.

Police action continued during the afternoon of June 29. A police search of the works as of 3.00pm local time had provided no further information regarding the incident.

29th June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

First Stop Network Hosts Charity F1 Event

A week before the Formula One roadshow hit Silverstone, Carson Tyre & Autocare – part of the
First Stop network of tyre dealerships, hosted the event at department store Leekes, in Melksham, where they showcased a stunning replica F1 car and simulator to help raise money for charity. Visitors to the Saturday, 13 June event had the chance to have their picture taken by the F1 car and test their driving skills on the simulator – both for a small charity donation. Bridgestone has declared the event “a huge success”, raising £200 for the British Heart Foundation.

All visitors were presented with Bridgestone merchandise and given the chance to enter a prize draw to win an exclusive F1 factory tour of the Williams facility in Grove, Oxfordshire. First Stop representatives and Carson Tyre & Autocare staff, who were on hand during the day, also used the event to give out safety and product advice.

22nd June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

New Kei Racing Daito Wheel

Kei Racing has released the latest of four designs from their all-new 2009 Collection. Fresh from their factory comes a multispoke design intended for a multitude of fitments. The stunning Daito comes in two finishes. Either a highly polished machined face contrasted against flawless gloss black details or stunning Hyper-Silver. 17 and 18 sizes are available in nearly all 4 and 5 stud pattern fitments, covering nearly all Jap, Euro, Tuner and Prestige models. Prices start at just £138.83 for the 17-inch version.

22nd June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

MRF Entreaties Employees to Return to Work

Unrest at the MRF Ltd factory in Arakkonam, India is now entering its second month, and the tyre manufacturer has voiced its hope for a swift resolution to the strike. In early June the company sent a letter to the plant’s 1400 workers, requesting their return to work.

“You are all aware of the difficulties that we are facing for the past few days due to all the unfortunate incidents that have happened,” the letter states. “Every day, our factory is suffering a loss of Rs 3.5 crore (£445,000). In these difficult circumstances, you must have been aware of the bonus and the wholesome amount to be paid every month. Therefore, be cautious and keep the evil forces at bay and cooperate with us on the path of success.”

16th June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Happy Birthday, Vulcanised Rubber!

Today, June 15, is a red-letter day for the tyre industry – exactly 165 years ago Charles Goodyear was granted the initial patent for process of rubber vulcanisation. But while this patent – number 3633 – may have opened the door to the development of a viable range of rubber products and eventually led to a company bearing his name becoming one of the largest tyre manufacturers in the world, the patent delivered far more financial reward to others than to Goodyear himself.

According to accounts of Charles Goodyear’s life, the vulcanised rubber story began in 1834 when Goodyear, whose hardware store had recently been made bankrupt, approached the Roxbury India Rubber Company with a new business idea.

15th June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Pirelli Carlisle Shutdown Planned for Late June

A further temporary closure of Pirelli’s Carlisle factory is scheduled for late June. The company reports that reduced demand for tyres in European markets is the reason behind the June 27 to July 1 shutdown.

Production at the Carlisle site had been increased in May in response to anticipated market stabilisation, however company management reports that short-term demand has reached their “optimistic prediction.”

15th June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

MAG Shows Continued Interest in Clairoix Factory

More than a month’s silence over future plans for Continental’s Clairoix factory in France has been broken – a June 10 Reuters report indicates continued interest from the Dubai based Moaffaq Al Gaddah (MAG) Group. The news provider states that MAG plans to purchase the facility and employ around half the current workforce to produce three million tyres per annum.

According to a MAG Group representative, the company submitted a letter of intent to Continental AG on June 9, thereby commencing the due diligence process for acquiring the Clairoix factory. “We have yesterday sent a letter of intent to Continental,” MAG vice-chairman Fawaz Sabri told Reuters. “The objective is to regulate the relationship until we reach a final agreement.”

11th June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Fines Mount Up For Titan’s Bryan Facility

Titan Tire is perhaps smarting a little after being slapped with an additional US$140,000 fine for two wilful violations of workplace safety regulations on top of the $24,500 penalty already mooted by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration. These violations were discovered following inspections made after a steam explosion at the company’s Bryan giant tyre facility in November 2008, in which one employee was slightly injured.

According to the Toledo Blade, OSHA follow-up inspections found problems related to the factory’s tyre curing equipment. Specifically, four of the units that use 2,900 tonnes of pressure to compress rubber and metal into 63-inch, 5.9 tonne tyres “were not adequately proof-tested and had welds of insufficient quality or strength to handle the exerted pressure.”

11th June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors

Conti Outlines Clairoix Redundancy Package

The deal for Continental’s Clairoix workers first made public by the French CGT union in late May has been officially confirmed. Conti reports that an agreement between its French and German management and trade union and French government representatives was reached on June 6. Upon announcing this agreement, Continental’s Dr. Thomas Winkelmann declared “we are pleased that we have already come up with a solution before the end of the four-week negotiation phase.”

An understanding, as Conti noted in a press statement, was not reached without difficulties. According to the German company, French union representatives “impeded the entire negotiations by rigidly focusing on negotiating the highest possible uniform one-off severance payment” for all affected employees. “The one-off payment of 50,000 euros for each employee is now a component of the overall solution – not more, but also not less, commented Winkelmann.

9th June 2009/by Tyrepress Editors