Joint managing directors Simon Klapwijk and Henk van Dijk founded S&H Tyres in 2001. Between them they can register nearly 50 years of experience in the tyre trade. The knowledge gained in those years together with their individual charisma and undoubted negotiating skills has played in a big part in enabling the company to become an increasingly dynamic force in the wholesale tyre industry.
In early August Goodyear was host to more than 50 representatives from DAF Trucks along with fleet customers, presenting a workshop to show the benefits of specifying the latest DAF truck models with the new Goodyear Max Technology tyres. Included in the event, held at Goodyear’s European Technical Centre in Luxembourg, was a visit to the company’s truck tyre production facility in Wittlich, Germany and its Luxembourg Mounting Facility (LMC), where tyres earmarked for OE manufacturers are fitted to wheels before shipment to truck manufacturers.
Akron, Ohio received the good news yesterday that Bridgestone will build its new Technical Centre facility in the city, meaning that the 600 jobs already stationed in the area will remain situated in their current location.
Workers had waited with bated breath for the Bridgestone search team to make its move in recommending the placement for the new building since the shortlist was cut down to two candidates – the other possibility being to move the work near to Nashville, Tennessee in Murfreesboro – a month ago.
Yasutaka Enoki has been named the new technical chief of the Bridgestone Firestone Tech Centre in Akron, Ohio. The executive will commence his tenure in the role at the beginning of August. Yutaka Yamaguchi, the outbound head, will take up a new position with Bridgestone Europe as assistant managing director of the company’s Rome Technical Centre.
Enoki’s extensive tyre development experience with Bridgestone stretches back to 1975. His new appointment sees him also elected to the boards of Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire and Bridgestone Americas Holding.
The US state of Ohio has granted some $18 million in tax breaks in an effort to convince Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire to keep its technical centre in Akron. In the deal, BFNAT would pay a reduced state commercial activity tax for 15 years in exchange for a commitment that the tyremaker would remain in Akron for at least 18 years.
The city of Akron, the state and Summit County have been working to assemble a financial incentive package to help keep BFNAT’s 600-employee technical center in Akron. The tiremaker is also considering a site in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, south of its Nashville headquarters, for a new facility.
This month Peter Wayte, Product Support Officer in the Goodyear Dunlop Technical Centre, celebrated training his 150th internal employee on a course called Technical Tyre Training. The course assists Goodyear Dunlop employees in understanding all the elements of a tyre, from how to read a tyre size to the technologies behind car, motorcycle, truck and farm tyres. It aims at improving personal skill level within the Goodyear Dunlop working environment educating employees in product attributes and tyre test wins. This creates a sense of pride in the brands and highlights Goodyear Dunlop’s premium products in the market.
The Technical Centre is designed to deal with all customer and technical enquiries from the public and dealers as well as training internal and external stakeholders in tyre technicalities. Goodyear Dunlop reports that it is dedicated to the training and development of employees and aims at cultivating high performance standards across the wider organisation.
The future location of 600 jobs at the Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire technical centre remains undecided after the company delayed the decision until the end of the year.
The tyre manufacturer has yet to produce an initial recommendation in order to decide whether to keep the technical centre in Akron, Ohio or to relocate the 600 roles to Nashville, Tennessee, in which BFNAT’s headquarters are currently located. The decision was initially planned for the end of May, but the recommendation will now be made by executives in Nashville and Japan in late 2008.
Goodyear has marked the Australian launch of its latest safety-conscious tyre with a “Satisfaction Assured Trial” – an option unique in Australia for consumers to have their set of four new “Assurance” tyres replaced after 1000kms or within two weeks, inclusive of all refit charges.
The Assurance tyre is the product of nearly two years’ development at the Goodyear Technical Centre in Luxembourg. It features an interlocking “Waffle Blade” system with silica-based tread, designed to provide greater levels of grip in wet or dry conditions, as well as an incorporated layer of Kevlar and silica-reinforced Durawall technology in the sidewall to provide increased resistance to cuts and tears. The company has named these features “ArmorGrip Technology”.
Cooper Tire’s position as an emerging global tyremaker has been strengthened by the opening of the Cooper Tire Asia Technical Centre in China. Located in Zhudi Town, 35 kilometres northwest of central Shanghai, the 5,000 square metre centre is intended to, says Cooper, to “position the appropriate tools, technology and intellectual resources closer to Cooper’s key customers in the region – its Asia production facilities and the Asia-Pacific markets.”
Facilities at the new centre include test wheels, a tyre forensics laboratory, tyre and rim storage, a vehicle lift, support workshops, materials laboratory plus offices, conference rooms and work rooms. It is estimated that more than 50 Cooper engineers, chemists and technicians will work at the facility, the third such centre operated by Cooper worldwide.
Of course the biggest news to-date this year for the Avon brand in the area of performance tyres is the release of the all-new ZV5 in March (featured in T&A April 2008), but the excitement surrounding the planned replacement for the ZV3 should not overshadow the other performance products in the Avon line-up – manufacturer Cooper Tire & Rubber produces Avon performance products for all conditions.
Avon ZV5
Designed to offer premium performance in a variety of conditions, the new Avon ZV5 was developed using advanced tyre technology at the company’s new UK technical centre. The tyre is available in a broad range of sizes to fit a wide range of vehicles, from small hatchbacks to large saloons, as well as MPVs and sports cars. Cooper reports that the ZV5 boasts significant improvements in handling, fuel efficiency and road noise, thanks to the use of the latest silica compounds and computer-aided design techniques.
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In February 2007 Cooper Tires opened a new European Technical Centre (ETC) alongside its factory in Melksham, thus beginning the Wiltshire site’s transformation from a production location for Avon brand tyres into a hub for the company’s Europe-wide activities. Under the guidance of ETC general manager Marcus Hancock – a 19-year company veteran who began his career at Melksham before furthering his career with Cooper in the US – the centre has spent the 14 months since its opening taking full responsibility for the design and development of products manufactured at Melksham, with high-performance passenger car tyres a particular focus. The first such tyre to be primarily developed in-house at the Melksham ETC was ready to be launched in March 2008.
Kumho’s new 18-inch rally raid tyre has completed its maiden event, with all four of the Bowler Nemesis 4x4s the company supplied completing the Baja Italia event. The Nemesis, a specialist V8-powered rally raid 4×4, had been due to make its debut on the Lisbon-Dakar Rally earlier this year, but the event was cancelled at the last minute, due to terrorist threats.
Four such Bowlers were entered for the Baja Italia (14-16 March), a rally centered around the dried river beds above Venice. These included the Kumho-liveried vehicle of Richard Hayward and Alex Cole; the second British entry of Greg Macleod and Oliver Ford; the French entry of Thierry Charbonnier and Quin Evans and the Belgian one of Joost Van Cauwenberge and Marc Devos.
Advanced ID, a leading supplier of RFID systems to the tyre industry, is to supply millions of RFID chips to Mesnac through its Pneu-Logic division. Mesnac, a leading Chinese tyre production equipment and software maker yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to buy a minimum of 2 million chips. The agreement also includes a quantity of RFID readers. Tyres & Accessories understands that Qingdao-based Mesnac is already working through a stock of 100,000 chips bought for use in a “range of testing purposes.” No details of the financial terms have been disclosed.
The deal is something of a coup for the Swadlincote, UK-based Pneu-Logic for two reasons: Firstly the scale of the deal ensures that there is a bright future for RFID use in tyre production, with signs that take-up could increase rapidly and substantially; and secondly because Mesnac is already applying the technology in both truck/bus tyres and passenger car products.
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Manchester United’s recent Kumho-sponsored thrashing of Aston Villa 4-0 was described by BBC Match of the Day pundits as some of the best football for a decade. So as Man U extended their Premiership lead to six points, Kumho’s management reflected on how this sporting success could be mirrored for Kumho in the tyre trade, hoping that their team has not only turned a corner in Europe, but made progress towards it goal of entering the tyre world’s own Champions League.
Kumho Europe decided to leverage its platinum sponsorship of UK premier league leaders Manchester United by holding the Kumho Big Match Day on 30 March 2008. Being platinum sponsor gave Kumho the opportunity to drape the main entrance into Old Trafford with two enormous banners, offer interactive experiences and event zones at promotional booths outside the stadium as well as hospitality programmes for dealers and distributors who were invited to the match.
Advanced ID, a leading supplier of RFID systems to the tyre industry, is to supply millions of RFID chips to Mesnac through its Pneu-Logic division. Mesnac, a leading Chinese tyre production equipment and software maker yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding to buy a minimum of 2 million chips. The agreement also includes a quantity of RFID readers. Tyres & Accessories understands that Qingdao-based Mesnac is already working through a stock of 100,000 chips bought for use in a “range of testing purposes.” No details of the financial terms have been disclosed.
The deal is something of a coup for the Swadlincote, UK-based Pneu-Logic for two reasons: Firstly the scale of the deal ensures that there is a bright future for RFID use in tyre production, with signs that take-up could increase rapidly and substantially; and secondly because Mesnac is already applying the technology in both truck/bus tyres and passenger car products.
Yuan Zhongxhue, the chairman of the board at Mesnac, explained that the concept at this stage is to tag the tyres throughout the production process, with a view to uploading tyre data to a central and even web-based system. The UHF RFID technology is intended to establish a new level of transparency in tyre production and throughout the whole tyre life, which is key improving perceptions of the reliability and traceability of Chinese-produced tyres.
Asked how long he thinks it will take for RFID to filter throughout the 300 million tyre Chinese market, Mr Yuan told T&A: “The projection is it shouldn’t take too long to filter through. In the Chinese philosophy when [one] decides something, you just do it.” The first stage of what Mesnac hopes will soon be a nation-wide roll out already underway trials. The crucial next stage is a national standardisation programme.
In a market as large and diverse as the Chinese tyre business, this could be seen as something of a challenge. However, Mr Yuan’s decision to go down the RFID route carries a fair bit of weight in the Chinese market. In addition to being chairman of the board at Mesnac, Yuan Zhongxue is also a director of the Shandong Province Technical Center of Rubber Industry and Qingdao Municipal Major Laboratory of Industrial Information Technology.
Even more importantly, from a lobbying perspective, the Mesnac chairman has a close working relationship with China Rubber Industry Association (CRIA) president, Ju Hong Zhen. Speaking to T&A, Mr Ju explained that the CRIA is in the process of determining the relevant RFID requirements in China, adding that the industry’s interest in this area demonstrates the attention it is giving to improving the quality of and confidence in Chinese produced tyres.
Chinese manufacturer to RFID-tag car tyres too
In March Pneu-Logic sold a five-digit quantity of chips to an as-yet unnamed European tyre manufacturer for evaluation purposes for three-month long commercial vehicle tyre trials in Germany, Italy and the UK. It is understood that most of the leading manufacturers in Europe are in or approaching similar positions, but the logic here had previously been that RFID would be most useful for truck casing tracking in the retreading process.
The Mesnac deal sees movement within the Chinese industry to include RFID tags virtually across the board, and specifically including passenger car products. In order to demonstrate this the Mesnac stand at the China International Rubber & Tyre Industry (Qingdao) Exhibition featured a car tyre and a 4×4 tyre with up to six RFID tags built in. Pneu-Logic managing director Laren Yeomans, explained that this was for demonstration purposes only and, when it comes to mass production, only one chip will be used in each tyre.
Teamwork
Qingdao Mesnac Co., Ltd, was established in 2000, but in this short time the company has developed key relationships with organisations both at home and internationally. At home Mesnac is involved with a postdoctoral research programme that sees the company join hands with CRIA and the Shandong Rubber Industry Association in the establishment of the Qingdao Rubber and Tire Engineering College.
In addition, Mesnac has established a number of international cooperation agreements in order to keep up with worldwide technological advances. According to company literature, the Chinese manufacturing systems supplier has cooperated with Matador Machinery and Konstrukta in Slovakia and US-based Farrel in relation to the development of informatization equipment and technology of radial tyres. Furthermore the Mesnac brochure reports that it has strategic partnerships with world-renowned suppliers such as Siemens, Rockwell and Mitsubishi on the subject of industrial automation production.
Mesnac’s relationships with Slovakian companies Matador and Konstrukta are well established and have been going for some time. Both deals agreements were formalized in November 2002, with the Chinese company cooperating with Konstrukta in the production of a 15-70 degree steel ply cutting machine and inner-liner extrusion line. By March 2003 the company was working with Matador on an all-steel, three-drum, radial tyre building machine. By May 2004 this particularly cooperation had expanded to include the establishment of an international technical centre and the manufacture of hydraulic curing machines and radial passenger tyre building machines with Matador. The Matador-Mesnac Technical Centre was opened at the same time, in parallel with the Shandong Rubber & Tyre Technical Centre.
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