Hofmann Megaplan has given away one of its megamount Smart lever-less tyre changers to Mill Tyres of Boston, Lincolnshire, the latter having won the company’s Brityrex 2010 prize-draw. The Smart can handle rims up to 30” in diameter, and is specifically targeted at “tough rim and tyre combinations”, including runflats, according to Hofmann Megaplan.
The team set up by Michelin to track down three original stained glass windows missing from London's iconic Michelin House building are reportedly “closing in” on the missing windows. In order to find the iconic relics of Michelin’s history the company set up a confidential hotline and webpage offering a “window amnesty” in exchange for information as to the stained-glass creation’s whereabouts. Now in the latest instalment in this tale of intrigue, Michelin is reporting that the phone lines have “proved busy with calls and tip-offs from across the UK.”
The tyre giant issued the amnesty two weeks ago in an attempt to get back the three missing original stained glass windows that once adorned the sumptuous Art Deco inspired Michelin House building on the Fulham Road, London. Michelin reports that the hotline and web pages have been “hot with rumour and speculation, with over 300 visits a day to the website since the amnesty was announced and a host of phone tip-offs that are helping to close the net on the missing windows.” Information including sightings has so far centred on the windows being last seen in the 1980s at Michelin storage facilities, a possible link to them being whisked out of the country to Australia and an anonymous call claiming they were sold onto a memorabilia collector based in the South East.
North Eastern Tyre and Exhausts has set aside £2 million for a two-year growth strategy centring on its wholesale division. As a first phase of this strategy the company has acquired a 69,000 square foot warehouse in Stockton for its NE Wholesale Operation. The storage site relies on 1400 stillages and three forklift trucks to manage its stock base of 100,000 of tyres, and next on the company’s agenda is to invest in state of the art automated technologies which will enable faster picking and stock optimisation.
Snap-on Incorporated has won three innovation awards at this year’s Professional Tool & Equipment News (PTEN) Innovation Awards. The US publication selected Snap-on for this distinction in the hand tools category for its 10-piece, 1/4-inch drive metric low profile ratchet/socket set, the tool storage category for its KEW-Series LED light assembly system for tool storage units and the equipment category for the Quadriga automatic tyre changer.
The consolidation of Trelleborg’s solid industrial tyre capacity in Sri Lanka has taken a further step forward with the opening of the enlarged Trelleborg Wheel Systems plant outside the city of Colombo. The company estimates that approximately 80 per cent of its total global solid industrial tyre production now is now carried out in Sri Lanka, a country it says is a “natural location” for it to consolidate production as it has an “excellent” raw materials infrastructure.
In late August the cornerstone was set in place for an 18,000 square metre warehouse earmarked for use by Continental AG in the town of Mosonmagyaróvár, northwest Hungary. The warehouse, which is expected to be ready for use in January 2011, will serve as a storage point for tyres destined for sale in Hungary and Austria.
Cutting-edge research expeditions may not be the first thing to spring to mind when UK battery distributor Manbat’s name is mentioned. However, a group of medical researchers have employed Lucas LG75 batteries supplied by the company to keep vital blood samples at the correct temperature while staying at a hut in the Alps. The Xtreme Alps project is designed to test the effectiveness of a dietary supplement taken to improve the body’s tolerance for lack of oxygen.
Snap-on Tools has announced the introduction of its latest, most advanced battery charging system – the EEBC500UK Battery Charger. “The EEBC500UK has many improved features,” says Aldo Rodi, UK managing director of Snap-on Tools, “including a higher working height handle which makes using this battery charger easier on the back compared to other models. It also provides increased efficiency as it has both positive and negative leads which can be replaced in the field and a new handy storage compartment which provides quicker access to optional battery hand tools. We are also offering a minimum £100 trade in on any old chargers, so making the new EEBC500UK even more attractive to garages.”
Chinese petrochemical product manufacturer Keyuan Petrochemicals reports it entered into land use right transfer agreements with local government agencies on August 18. Following their approval, the company will instigate plans for expansion on an 111,500 square metre site adjacent to its existing plant in Ningbo, Zhejiang province. In addition to building a storage and several manufacturing facilities as originally planned, the company has now announced it also intends to establish a Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS) production plant on the site. Work will begin in the third quarter of 2010.
Following prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive, Pirelli Tyres Ltd has been fined £9,000 for an incident in which an employee’s leg was broken when he was hit by a forklift vehicle in the tyre maker’s Carlisle plant. Allan Miller, a 62-year-old contractor, was walking through an area within the curing department at the Dalston Road site when he was struck from behind by a pallet being carried on a forklift truck. He has been unable to return to his normal duties, the HSE reports.
Following the naming of key suppliers for its new 400 million euro butyl rubber plant on Singapore’s Jurong Island, Lanxess states that the facility’s project execution phase, in which the infrastructure necessary for the plant’s construction is being set up, is now in “full swing”. The current construction schedule calls for the plant to be ready in time for production to start in the first quarter of 2013.
Tecalemit has added the GTR 400 four laser truck wheel alignment system to its wheel alignment range. The GTR 400 HD is suitable for wheel sizes from 300mm up to 890mm. And, according to the company, its precision engineered components, high resolution class B laser and simultaneous dual axis measurements generate accurate measurements and a one degree resolution.
German software house PC-Soft has announced plans to show its fa/r software designed for managing retreading processes at June’s Reifen 2010 show. According to the company, PC-Soft designed the comprehensive fa/r system solution specifically for the requirements of the retread industry.
“Our customers benefit from the practical illustration of their processes (e.g. buffing, building) and the seamless integration of production, storage and management, automatic documentation and therefore the optimization of the whole process. Our focus is securing your productivity and flexible response capability to deliver as soon as possible and at optimum production,” company representatives commented in their promotional literature.
A pile of around 2,000 tyres caught light at a landfill site in Hampole, Doncaster on 10 May. Fire crews were called to the Hazel Lane Landfill/waste recycling plant, run by Catplant Ltd at around 4.50am, according to local news reports. At the height of the blaze, there were a reported 40 fighters from both South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire dealing with a fire which was thought to extend down to five metres below the surface.
The cause of the fire remains undetermined and a fire service spokesman said no investigations into the cause would be made until the blaze had been put out. There have been no reports of injuries.
Envirotyre has suffered a significant fire at its tyre reprocessing plant on Littleburn Industrial Estate, Langley Moor, County Durham. According to local news reports, firefighters were called to the scene at about 10.30am today (22 April 2010). Fire chiefs reported that the fire could burn “for several more days.” No injuries have been reported. There has been no confirmation of how much damage has been caused.
The Northern Echo reported that a plume of smoke emanating from burning tyre chip in at firm could be seen rising “hundreds of feet into the sky and [could be] seen as far away as Morpeth, in Northumberland, and on Teesside.” The fire is said to have burnt at close to 1,000 degrees Celsius at its peak.
If you would like the latest news from the Chinese tyre industry in Chinese, visit our partner site TyrepressChina.com. Or click below to continue on Tyrepress.
