Manufacturing Archives - Page 164 of 257 - Tyrepress

Whether its raw materials, machinery, research and development or the latest manufacturing trends, this tag provides up-to-the-minute insights into the upstream part of the tyre industry.

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Vacu-Lug Staff Gain Qualifications

A total of 17 Vacu-Lug employees, accounting for approximately 12 per cent of the company’s staff, have gained qualifications related to the retread tyre business during 2008. Among these is Craig Caithness, Operations Technician at Vacu-Lug’s Grantham retread tyre factory, who has been awarded the UK’s highest mark in the 2008 City & Guilds Part 1 in Workshop Practice examination organised and operated by the Retread Manufacturers’ Association.

In total six Vacu-Lug employees sat and passed the City & Guilds examination, which is the fundamental qualification for the retread industry and covers every aspect of retreading from initial inspection to final quality control. Of the Vacu-Lug candidates, Craig Caithness was awarded a Distinction, while three of his colleagues gained Passes and two Credits.

24th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Hankook All-Season Test Success

Hankook’s Optimo 4S has received the best ratings in an all-season tyre test by Auto Bild, the German car magazine, with testers acknowledging “top driving performance under any weather conditions”. The company says that the “exemplary” rating of the tyre substantiates Hankook’s claim to premium standards in its products. The Optimo 4S is also the only tyre in the world to receive the German Federal Environmental Agency’s prestigious Blue Angel mark, attributed because of the tyre’s reduced road and rolling noise, as well as helping to reduce fuel consumption by up to five per cent.

Hankook is – According to the US-Magazine Modern Tire Dealer (Jan. 2008) – currently the seventh largest and fastest growing tire manufacturer in the world, and the company is keen to emphasise the “landmark” nature of the results of the tests by Auto Bild, Europe’s largest automobile magazine. Eight all-season-products from various makers were tested on a VW Golf with the dimensions 195/65 R 15 T/H/V. The Optimo 4S (standing for four seasons), was – according to Auto Bild’’s editor – the only tested tyre “that outperforms in any kind of weather”. He also praised its “dynamic handling quality on snow-covered roads as well as short braking distances on wet as well as dry courses,” making the tyre one of only two to receive the magazine’s “exemplary” rating.

24th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Smuggled Tyres Putting the Squeeze on Indonesian Manufacturers

Domestic tyre sales in the Indonesian market dropped four per cent during August, allegedly the result of a market saturated with cheaper tyres smuggled from China and India. According to Indonesian Tire Producers Association chairman Aziz Pane, illegal tyres have been entering the Indonesian market since July and are making life difficult for the producers of their local counterparts.

“Illegally imported tyres, in the hundreds of thousands, have partly taken over the domestic market,” Pane told the Jakarta Post. “Local tyre producers sold 3.7 million tires in August, down from 3.89 million in July.” According to the association, tyres produced in China and India are sold in Indonesia for between 10 to 30 per cent less than locally made tyres.

23rd September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Indian Government May Offer Fuel-Efficient Incentives

The Indian government is pondering whether to offer fiscal incentives to popularise fuel-efficient radial tyres for trucks and buses, the country’s news media is reporting. It is thought that the tyres could save automotive fuel worth 200,000,000 rupees (2.4 billion pounds sterling) annually. The package would include exemption from excise duty, a reduction in import duty on machinery and a concessional VAT rate for a ten-year period.

By doing so, the Indian government would hope to increase the manufacturing of radial tyres within India, and boosting its market share to 25 per cent. The current level is between 4 and 5 per cent, an official in department of industrial policy and promotion told The Economic Times. The Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association has demanded the incentive package that would reduce the cost of radial tyres by 30 per cent, added the source.

18th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone, Goodyear Receive NC Incentives

Bridgestone and Goodyear are to receive up to 30 million US dollars, following the approval by the North Carolina Department of Commerce of state incentive plans. The grants from the Job Maintenance and Capital Development Fund are designed to give companies the incentive to upgrade existing manufacturing facilities, therefore preventing jobs from being lost through firms’ wandering eyes.

Since both companies employ over 2,000 (at Goodyear, Fayetteville and Bridgestone, Wilson) the necessity to secure the jobs in their current location is clear. However, the cash incentives have not been without their critics, who call attention to the fact that the companies are not required to create new jobs, but merely maintain those already in existence. Goodyear must retain 2,398 workers and invest 200 million US dollars by 2012 to receive the whole 30 million, while Bridgestone must invest the same by 2010, while retaining 2,083 staff members.

18th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

OTR CushionTyre Retread Success

Earthmover tyre specialists OTR Tyres introduced their solid CushionTyre early last year and the performance of the product has been further enhanced by OTR’s ability to retread the tyre, following recent major manufacturing developments.

Waste Industry Manager Paul Tracey says that some CushionTyres have been returned to the factory for second and third life retreading, with no loss of performance, adding: “We have found that tyre life hours of a retreaded CushionTyre are very similar to that of the original tyre specification, but with significant cost per hour reductions.”

17th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear Plants Out of Action Following Hurricane Ike

Goodyear doesn’t like Ike. The hurricane that struck the Texas, US coastline on September 13 has affected the company’s operations in the area, with operations at three of its petrochemical plants suspended. About 1,000 employees have been unable to perform their duties as a result.

17th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Sentaida International to Build New Factory in China

Just under a year after Chinese company Sentaida International bought US UHP tyre wholesale specialist Zisser Tire Wholesale, company representatives have told Tyres & Accessories that Sentaida is two-thirds of the way through constructing a new “state of the art” tyre manufacturing facility. The first phase of tyre production is scheduled to start in 2009 when the company will make between 2 and 3 million passenger car ultra high performance tyres. When construction is completed and production is fully ramped up (sometime around 2013) the factory is expected to output approximately 10 million units annually.

17th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Tree-Planting Ceremony Held at Yokohama Tire Philippines

Yokohama Rubber’s commitment to all things environmental continued on August 23 with another tree planting ceremony, part of its “Yokohama Forever Forest” project at Yokohama Tire Philippines. The August ceremony was the first staged by the company outside of Japan, and will be followed by further such events in China (Hangzhou Yokohama Tire) in November and Yokohama Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) in December. In Japan, the entire initial phase of tree planting has been completed except for at Yokohama’s Shinshiro facility, which will host a tree planting ceremony in May 2009.

16th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Student’s Discovery Removes Zinc Oxide from Tyre Manufacturing

Research conducted by a South African PhD student could prove a boon to the global tyre industry. While working on his chemistry doctorate, Robert Bosch, 32, from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth discovered a means by which Zinc Oxide can be replaced as a catalyst in tyre manufacturing, a much sought after substitution.

The global tyre manufacturing industry uses 600,000 tonnes of highly toxic Zinc Oxide each year. The substance is poisonous to aquatic organisms and accumulates in the environment. The newly discovered chemical compound catalyst, Rubber Nano Products Liquid Activation (RNPX), is said to be environmentally friendly and only one third of the volume of Zinc Oxide is necessary to do the same job.

16th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

First European Sales of Laugfs Solid Tyres

Europe received its first shipment of tyres from Sri Lanka’s Laugfs Rubber Corporation in early September. The European market thus joins the company’s growing international network, which includes a holding company in Hong Kong and distribution centres in North America, Canada, Australia and the Middle East.

16th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Goodyear to Collaborate in Development of Isoprene Substitute

On September 16 the announcement was made that Goodyear has entered into a research collaboration with Genencor, a division of Danish company Danisco A/S, to develop a bio-based process for producing isoprene using renewable raw materials.

Goodyear and Genencor are working on a product called BioIsoprene, a bio-based alternative for the petroleum-derived chemical compound isoprene. BioIsoprene can be used for the production of synthetic rubber and other elastomers. The development of BioIsoprene could, says Danisco, make the tyre and rubber industry less dependent on oil-derived products, such as synthetic rubber made from petroleum-derived isoprene monomer.

16th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Kia Wants Michelin for Fuel Efficient cee’d

Korea’s Kia Motors has selected Michelin to provide the OE tyres for all new additions to the company’s cee’d range. The choice has been inspired by Michelin’s efforts in manufacturing tyres that contribute to the fuel-efficiency of the vehicle they are mounted upon. The cee’d range, Kia states, is to be grown with new low environmental impact models.

It seems that this is a marriage of design principles, with both companies expressing commitment to innovations leading to both increased safety and better fuel economy. The Michelin-Kia partnership began in 2006 when Kia selected Michelin as the exclusive supplier of 15”, 16” and 17” tyres to equip the carmaker’s cee’d range.

16th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

Bridgestone Poznan Plant Wins Ford Q1 Award

The Bridgestone factory in Poznan, Poland has received a Ford Q1 Award for the consistent high quality of its tyres. The Ford Q1 plaque and flag were received by Masayuki Sorioka, (managing director and president of Bridgestone Poznan) from Sven Wunstorf, STA Commodity senior engineer Ford Motor Company Europe, at a ceremony attended by staff in the Poznan plant on 27th August 2008.

Ford’s European Quality and Procurement Division awards Q1 ‘preferred quality status’ certification only to suppliers achieving a sustained level of excellence in customer satisfaction over a period of time, while also meeting agreed requirements in quality, productivity and service.

15th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors

German Machinery Sees Orders Decline

Machinery used in the processing of plastic and rubber is experiencing difficulties as a knock-on effect from industries such as tyre manufacturing. According to the VDMA trade association of German plastics and rubber machinery producers, orders for German plastics and rubber machinery in the first half of 2008 have declined by seven per cent compared with the same period in 2007.

Orders had previously seen a continuous rise throughout 2007 up until 2008’s Q1. Therefore, the VDMA describes the situation as a turning point. Having said that, the high number of outstanding orders means that the association is not changing its full year 2008 forecast. It predicted an increase of 8 per cent in turnover to a value of 5.6 billion euros for core plastics and rubber machinery. However, considering the decline in orders, the association admitted that the decline would be felt in forecasts for turnover in 2009.

12th September 2008/by Tyrepress Editors