Five decades ago Kraiburg started production at its Geretsberg site with just eight employees. The customs barriers between Germany and Austria were the reason why the directors of the Kraiburg family business with its headquarters in Waldkraiburg in Bavaria decided to go across the border. After two decades of producing in Germany they purchased a saw-mill with 11 hectares of land in Geretsberg, Austria and built up Kraiburg Austria.
Kraiburg Austria reports that it will be both celebrating five decades of history as well as present its latest products when it appears at the 2014 Reifen exhibition in Essen, Germany. Situated in the company’s now familiar location in the Galeria, Kraiburg will be showing a new and slightly larger stand.
This year, Kraiburg Austria has launched a new in-house developed trailer pattern and also supplemented its existing patterns with additional sizes. The new trailer tread is now available as the K 800 in the K_Base range, as the KLT 1 in the K_plus line-up. The new tread is initially available in 287mm and 295mm widths and will be joined by 305mm and 320mm widths in the middle of the year. The retreading specialist says the K800/KLT1 is ideal for local and long-haul applications on semi-trailer, trailer and towed axles.
Five years into a partnership with Tatko Otomotiv Group, rubber and retreading material supplier Kraiburg is celebrating increased market share in Turkey. According to the company, the Turkish market for HGV retreads is of paritcular strategic importance to Kraiburg Austria, with an annual volume of around 9,000 tonnes of material.
Kraiburg reports that it has maintained its high annual customer satisfaction rating, roughly a year since the last analysis was done. According to the company, the news is confirmation that Kraiburg Austria’s customers are “very satisfied with their supplier of quality precure and hotcure materials.”
Rema Tip Top GmbH has announced the departure of Michael Schwämmlein, global director of the Automotive business unit, from the company. Details of Schwämmlein’s and Rema Tip Top’s parting of ways have not been given and Rema Tip Top has yet to announce a successor.
Kraiburg Austria reports that it will continue investing in machinery, facilities and processes at its Geretsberg site this year in order to provide its retreading partners the best possible quality and service. The company has earmarked a budget of three million euros for several projects, with a major chunk of this amount expected to be directed towards Kraiburg’s extruders. These will be upgraded to enable their meeting of potential future requirements, such as an extension of the tyre label to retreaded tyres. The Austrian retreading specialist also intends to provide its research and development department with an additional laboratory mixer. Last but not least, the company will invest in numerous process operations in order to improve production and administrative efficiency.
Retreading specialist Kraiburg Austria has appointed Thorsten Schmidt as sole managing director responsible for production in Geretsberg, effective January 2012. His previous colleague in this management responsibility, Dr. Andreas Starnecker, now holds a new position in Kraiburg Holding.
In line with its ongoing commitment to take up and act upon its customers’ concerns, Kraiburg Austria has decided to actively participate in the BIPAVER "Re-Tyre" project alongside the various associations, other retreaders and testing institutes as the only material-supplier. “This participation is giving Kraiburg and our customers, the independent retreaders, the opportunity to actively observe and shape the process,” says Thorsten Schmidt, CEO of Kraiburg Austria, who goes on to explain a further motivation for taking part in this project: Access to the ETRTO and ETRMA organisations is reserved exclusively for new tyre manufacturers – and Kraiburg is the only one of Europe's leading material suppliers that doesn’t run its own tyre operations. As an active retreading partner, the Austrian company says it naturally wants the results to influence the development of its own products and materials.
In June Kraiburg Austria revealed details of its new revised Pattern Programme for 2011/2012. The current programme shows the availability of the individual product lines, K_base, K_plus or K_tech, at a glance.
A colour coding system also allows direct and rapid identification of the patterns – even if they are available in two different lines. As always, blue has been used for the all-round line K_base. Green indicates the technology line K_tech. And yellow is the colour of choice for the high-performance premium line K_plus.
“Think Wide” is the slogan Kraiburg Austria has adopted for its exhibit at the forthcoming Essen Show (1 to 4 June). The retreading materials maker reports that it will be presenting “an innovative process for premium pre-cured retreads.” The new technology, which is said to be innovative both in terms of the material and the method, eliminates one of the major restrictions in the pre-cured retreading process. And what’s more, according to the company, the new process “propels the finished product into the performance class of the premium hot cured retreads,” that have been growing in influence in the marketplace in recent years. Representatives of Kraiburg’s specialist earthmover/OTR division will also be hand at the company’s trade fair stand (109 in the GALERIA area), and staff will generally be on hand to offer advice for complete systems and designs.
Kraiburg Austria has launched two new treads – the K222 and KST2. Following the company’s K74 development, reportedly the first design with sufficient traction properties for the 60 series, Kraiburg has now designed an all-season tread for 70 and 80 series casings. Suitable for trucks and buses, the new all-season design is said to be able to offer extra grip in winter without comprimsing on wear or increasing rolling noise or fuel consumption. According to the company, this makes the K222 or KST2 “ideal for all applications in which the annual mileage is approximately the same as the running performance of the drive axle.”
The majority of Kraiburg’s partners are more than satisfied with their retreading materials supplier, according to a survey conducted by the Austrian based company. The survey questioned 30 key account customers in the European market. Topics such as service, products, package value and suggestions or criticism were discussed in personal interviews. Marks were awarded from 1 for very good to 5 for unsatisfied. The average total mark was 1.63.
The Austrian company reportedly fared well in sales service, office and logistics departments (average mark 1.38) or availability and competence of the technical service (1.28). The same applies also to responses on the quality of the company’s cold and hot material (1.34 and 1.33 respectively).
On January 1st 2010, European Directive 76/796/EEC comes into force. The new Directive prescribes limits on the permissible percentage of processing oils containing PAHs (polycyclic aroma¬tic hydrocarbons) which are subject to declaration. It will be illegal to produce tyres which do not conform to the specified limits. Processing oils plasticise the rubber compound, making it more flexible and pliable during the blending process.
However, Kraiburg’s retreading partners needn’t worry, as the company started to adapt all its precure retreads back in 1997 and completed the process at the beginning of 2007. The aim was to ensure that customers adhering to the Kraiburg three-year shelf life policy for precured treads would not have non-compliant goods in stock at the beginning of next year.
Kraiburg Austria has updated its K_base, K_tech and K_plus range of products. According to the company, the changes it has made are aimed at attaining: “maximum economic efficiency for all involved.” The retreading specialist has updated the designs, widths and lengths of its cut-to-size tread sections and has added new dimensions in some lines. Some designs have been pared down to just one version, such as the KDR and the KZU+. Others have changed segment in response to customer demands. The K47 bus tread designed for road use has been removed from the K_tech technology line, for example, and added to the all-round K_base line. At the same time, Kraiburg Austria announced the autumn launch of the new KST2/K222 tread for year-round use.
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