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USA NEWS
Shearography is now critical to retread quality
North Dakota’s Smith Tire and Retread Joins Goodyear
Wahpeton, North Dakota, Smith Tire and Retread has joined the Goodyear Retread Network. The firm has a 22,000-sq.-ft. Plant, which is a fully equipped Goodyear UniCircle and precure retread facility capable of producing up to 200 retreaded truck tyres per day. The plan is for the plant to supply distributors in North and South Dakota
“Our main focus is on the dealer
In addition, because there’s no cutting or splicing during application of the UniCircle tread, the resulting retreaded tyre is uniform and balanced, which helps extend casing life, Goodyear said. The UniCircle cure process is optimised as well, the company noted, to help deliver lower rolling resistance than standard retreads, which also helps boost fuel economy.
TRIB Gets Hands-on at Bandag Education Centre
TRIB’s David Stevens recently had the chance to spend the day at Bandag's redesigned Education
Centre in La Vergne, Tennessee. Randy Hanson, Bridgestone's Technical Training Solutions
Manager, walked David through a shortened version of the Certified Retread Technician training Bandag offers its franchisees.
From the state-of-the-art classroom with huge video screens to the sparkling clean demonstration facility, everything is geared for a great learning experience. David Stevens says, “ I have to say it was a strange sensation being in an operational retread facility that was cool, quiet and had a noticeably absent smell of rubber.
“Randy immediately put me to work on Bandag’s NDT- IIB initial inspection stand
bead to search for crown, liner and bead separations that might not be apparent from the outside.
From there, it's on to buffing. David comments, “While I was behind the controls manually buffing a tyre, I got a real sense of how the science and art of retreading come together. Our industr y has technically sophisticated equipment and processes for retreading tyres, but there are still a lot of technicians involved in each step of the process. Their training and abilities at each stage in the process are important components of delivering a great final product. That’s why TRIB members, including Bandag, invest so much time and money in properly designed equipment and training programmes to meet this challenge in the retreading industry.”
about the industr y at the Bandag Education Center.
David also visited the adjoining new tyre plant based in the same complex in La Vergne. Where he saw for himself the similarities in the way a retread tyre is built and a new tyre is finished. He commented, “I wish ever y person that complains about rubber on
the road was able to see how a new tyre is manufactured and then compare that to the retread process so they could better understand the technical complexity and soundness of casings and how the two processes closely mirror each other.”
looking for issues in the test tyres that would cause them to be rejected for retreading. Along one wall, they have a variety of tyres with specific problems that would cause them to be rejected and the trainees are challenged to correctly identify all the problems.”
Next, it was on to the shearography machine, which scans the truck tyre from bead to
Moving onto skiving and repairing David had to admit, “As a novice, I was humbled by how hard it was for me to flawlessly skive and repair a crown injur y. But this leaves me even more impressed with the repair work I see in our members' plants on a daily basis. “
Even with this abbreviated training in these areas David says that he still learned several new things
Trainees have the opportunity to identify tyre failure points on a range of casings
business, but we also have plans to aggressively grow our business with end users,” said owner Jim Smith.
“UniCircle treads are spliceless and adhere snugly to the tyre’s casing. This helps reduce tearing and chunking while enhancing miles to removal,” he said.
“UniCircle gives us a product that none of our local competitors have,” said Smith. “And on top of that, UniCircle quality is second-to- none. UniCircle retreads run great and they deliver a wide range of real-world benefits for fleets.”
16 Retreading Business