Kal Tire opens Mexico mining tire retreading and repair facility

“Retreading is a service we’ve wanted to bring to Mexico for some time because we know from experience with our other facilities that retreading extends tyre life and reduces the cost of ownership. Retreading also reduces the impact on the environment,” says Pedro Pacheco, Vice President Operations, Latin America, Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group. “Our clients see this as an opportunity and look forward to seeing our retread tyres in operation.”

The retread facility officially opened 18 October and is strategically located as 30% of Mexico’s mines are in the state of Sonora. This marks the sixth OTR retreading and repair facility for Kal Tire, an international leader in mining tyre management that began retreading in the 1970s, with the other facilities being in Canada, UK, West Africa and Chile.

“We are very much looking forward to demonstrating how a superior retreading technology and process will renew a tyre’s strong performance and lengthen its lifespan,” says Pacheco, adding OTR retreads by Kal Tire often achieve 3000 - 6000 additional hours, and allow mines to reuse quality original casings, an additional environmental benefit. Emissions produced in manufacturing a new tyre are significantly higher than in the retreading process. For example, producing a new 29.5R25 tyre uses 68 l of oil and emits 4192 kg of carbon dioxide (CO₂); retreading the same tyre uses 13.95 l of oil and emits 2464 kg of CO₂.

The Mexico plant will be Kal Tire’s first retread facility to use a robot for skiving and tread grooving, improving access to custom tread designs to best suit each site’s conditions. The robot technology – a pilot programme as the company begins automating retread operations around the world – also helps ensure team members don’t have to perform the most strenuous steps. “The robot will allow us to switch tread patterns without having to switch tools,” says Pacheco. “The work is done efficiently and lets us make the most of the expertise of our people.”

The 3000 m² plant will be supported by a team of 120 during construction phase and employ 40 people onsite who have been in training for nearly a year to achieve their certification as retread technicians. All plant team members are local residents of Cananea, a town of 30 000 that has welcomed the new plant as it spurs economic activity such as food service vendors and other supports. The team aims to be retreading an average of 80 tyres per month and will increase capacity to meet demand.

“We have been proud to serve the mining industry in Mexico for 12 years and we are excited to bring this value-added service to this market to help customers keep tyres in production,” said Dan Allan, senior vice president, Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group. “Retreading reduces a tyre’s operating cost per hour, it reduces new tyre purchases and it reduces the impact on the environment.” Every year, Kal Tire retreads more than 10 000 tyres and saves thousands of tyre casings from being prematurely sent to scrap piles.

The company has developed other innovative approaches to extending tyre life, as well as a solution for managing end-of-life tyres, including:

 

• Ultra tread: Rather than buffing a damaged tyre back to the original casing, Ultra Tread builds smaller amounts of new rubber into the existing tread, extending the life of the casing and increasing the total life of the tyre.
• Ultra repair: Kal Tire’s proprietary technology to repair large injuries to the tread, shoulders and sidewalls keeps tyres operating that would have otherwise been scrapped.
• Thermal conversion recycling: Kal Tire will open its first thermal conversion recycling facility in Chile later this year, converting scrap tyres into their original materials of steel, diesel and carbon black so they can be recycled.

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/trade-transport/24102019/kal-tire-opens-mexico-mining-tire-retreading-and-repair-facility/