Ewan has been editor of Retreading Business since 2006 and of Tyre & Rubber Recycling since the magazine was founded. During this period he has become an expert on the global tyre recycling sector. He has many years' experience as an automotive journalist including a period at Tyres & Accessories.
Piave Tyres Waterbuffing Gives Savings
Retreading with UHP water jet buffing lowers waste and materials costs.
Piave Tyres Presents Alternative Retreading
Retreading has traditionally used a process of buffing down the subject tyre to remove rubber from the casing to allow the replacement of that rubber with either new precured tread or fresh rubber for hot cure retreads.
Piave Tyres is an Italian specialist in earthmover retreading. The company realised that the traditional retreading processes removed a considerable amount of good rubber to prepare the casing for retreading.
Piave also needed to recycle its unserviceable tyres and had partnered with Rubber Jet Valley, an Italian water jetting recycler of truck and earthmover tyres, to dispose of beyond repair casings.
Rubber Jet Valley had discovered that the process of water jetting resulted in the creation of a partially devulcanised rubber crumb. Tests on casings from Piave Tyres showed that the surface of a water jetted tyre also indicated partial devulcanisation of the tyre’s surface, giving it the potential to be revulcanised along with new hot cure layers for retreading.
The process, called Waterbuff (or DPS), being promoted by Piave Tyres requires a level of tyre management to be effective. Tyres are brought in when ready for retreading, and they are repaired – the same water jetting process allows up to nine repairs per tyre – and the tyre surface to be retreaded is water jet prepared to create a partially devulcanised surface to which the new rubber can be applied.
Piave Tyres say that the system results in less rubber being buffed from the tyre and therefore less new rubber being applied. This creates cost savings for the operator, and as it creates less waste, a benefit to the environment.
The process can be applied to earthmover, agricultural and truck tyres being prepared for a hot cure retread.