Wheels
Avon Tyres has added two brand-new tyre lines – the Ranger HTT and the Ranger ATT – to its extensive off-road portfolio. Avon says that the Ranger high-performance 4×4 series boasts superb handling characteristics and excellent stability at high speeds, both on-road and off-road, delivering comfort and confidence in equal measure.
John Ellis, managing director of Motor Wheel Service Distribution has been presented with the Northwest Automotive Alliance’s Business Excellence Small and Medium Enterprise Project of the Year Award. The company has been highly commended for its work on the issue of commercial vehicle wheel safety with the Department for Transport, European Union and main CV industry bodies. While Tyrepress.com has followed MWSD campaigns on other issues, such as the presence of unchecked take-off wheels in the marketplace, the company’s current campaign focuses on the early fatigue of wheels operating on non-circumferential hubs.
Trading in over 30 countries around the world through a series of partnerships, Treadsetters has developed its international activities as part of the TIA Group of companies. Treadsetters believes that the ongoing growth within the global tyre market can be attributed to a combination of providing the company's international client base with ongoing extensive sourcing and marketing expertise, technical support and advice along with the responsive supply of tyres and wheels. The company has recently exhibited in South Africa, Tanzania and Panama as part of the company's ongoing dynamic sales and marketing campaign.
The world’s largest vehicle wheel manufacturer, Maxion Wheels, has completed its project to double production of cast aluminium wheels in Manisa, Turkey, near the city of Izmir. With this week’s official opening ceremony for the facility – which is promoted as a second plant – annual capacity has increased to four million units. This means the Manisa site is not only the company’s largest in this product segment, rather it is – along with the Borbet facility in Bad Langensalza, Germany – the industry’s largest plant in Europe.
Have you been put off buying snow chains for your car because you cannot face the hassle of fitting them to the wheels? Thule, the global manufacturer of car accessories came up with a spectacular demonstration of just how easy it is to fit their snow chains – and grabbed themselves a Guinness World Record into the bargain. In early October, the Lecco Ice Sports Complex in Italy played host to the record-breaking demonstration, with 24 Citroen C4 Aircross cars positioned on the ice in three rows of eight. Thule Easy-fit snow chains were positioned one metre from each wheel and, on the starting signal from Guinness World Record judge Lorenzo Veltri, a team of 12 people tried to fit as many snow chains as possible in 60 seconds.
Yesterday, Pirelli chairman and CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera and the firm’s top management were received by the President of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, to mark the 140th anniversary of the company’s foundation in 1872.
Winter tyres are becoming increasingly popular for those who wish to keep moving during the dreary, icy and snowy months to come. Irritatingly, often the process of swapping over your summer tyres while keeping your original wheels is long-winded, time consuming and unnecessary, plus steels are a bit dull aren't they?
Although the World Superbike Championship is switching to 17-inch tyres for the 2013 season – a change promoted as one that will aid in the motorsport-driven development of road-going motorcycle tyres – the British Superbike Championship will continue for one further year on Pirelli’s 16.5-inch tyre.
Everyone’s talking about the introduction of tyre labelling in November. But we should also be aware that at the same time that the so-called fridge labels are being mandatorily applied to tyres, another rule stipulating that all new cars must fit TPMS is being implemented. The law stipulates that all models homologated since July 2012 have to be manufactured with an appropriate Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS). From 2014 it will be broadened to include all cars being sold into the market in order to cover any cars not yet mandated. What both dates mean is that there are going to be lots of TPMS equipped cars on the road very soon and tyre retailers need to be ready to service them professionally and take advantage of this business opportunities this provides. It also means that direct TPMS manufacturers are ramping up production in order to meet increased demand from both the OE and replacement markets.
Ask a leading tyre pressure monitoring system manufacturer what the future is for indirect TPMS and they will probably say there isn’t one. Tyres & Accessories asked this precise question of one of the biggest manufacturers in the business recently and the response was swift and somewhat in line with expectations. Of course direct TMPS makers have economic reasons not to like the solution offered by the competition, but is there more to it than that? As the European legislation mandating TPMS installation in every new vehicle comes into force, Tyres & Accessories engages with both sides of this debate.
Michelin’s Energy E-V first caught the public’s eye at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year through the release of the ZOE, Renault’s new, affordable electric car, and the tyre maker officially debuted the Energy E-V – now bearing an AA label – at last week’s Paris Motor Show.
New fuel solutions can only be optimised with equally new tyre design concepts, according to Dunlop Motorsport, which invited journalists to both witness the unveiling of the latest GreenGT vehicle and learn more about the cutting edge rubber cars like it will be running on.
Alcoa Wheel Products Europe has introduced four new wheels for truck and trailer applications at the IAA trade show in Hannover, Germany. The fitments comprise: 22.5×11.75”, 45mm offset wheel for inloaders; a 22.5×11.75”, 80mm offset wheel; 22.5×11.75”, 135mm offset and five ton load index; and a 22.5×13.00” lighter wheel with higher load capacity.
Online tyre retailer Delticom is seeking to expand its market leadership in complete wheels. Business and fleet customers as well as consumers can choose from a high number of combinations of steel and aluminium complete wheels and tyres.
These tyre and wheel combinations are produced on demand, with tyres freshly mounted and balanced for each order – even runflats.
Alongside its B-TAG launch, Bridgestone Commercial Solutions, a division of Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, introduced a suite of products and services it says are designed to increase a mine's productivity and reduce costs, while maintaining a constant regard for safety. Bridgestone Mining Solutions (BMS) thus combines tyre sales and repair with tyre management and retreading to address every phase of a mine's tyre-related needs.
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