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HUNGARY
There is no monorail here, but tyres are transported on trolleys so never touch the ground until they are finished
market of the public transport system, from low quality Chinese tyres and from political intervention in one of the former “market” areas, production has been reduced to around 5,500 units.
It is difficult to explain the nature of the intervention, but old practices apparently die hard in some places, and the current Hungarian government has a considerable majority, which it believes has given it mandate to do as it pleases – including interfering in the free market, but only to a limited extent.
László Kenesei, the technical director of the retread operation explained, that with a fleet of 1,400 vehicles the company consumed around 700 new tyres every year and supplied some 1,200 plus retreaded tyres, some of which were retreaded twice.
The retread operation is centralised for the companies brought together in the group that covers Gyor and the surrounding region. The loss of the outlet was to the operation that covers Szeged in the South of Hungary. There, the bus company has decided to buy only new Yokohama tyres.
“Our new tyre policy is to buy quality at a reasonable price, so we buy second brands such as Barum, Matador, Firestone and so on. These are tyres that give the new life service that we need, they are retreadable, and are affordable. “We have looked at Chinese tyres and we do buy some of them, but we look at quality and performance. If we can’t get the best lifetime costs out of these tyres we will not use them. However, we cannot ignore them. We are not tied to any brand and we have not signed up to any contracts, so we buy the best for us at the time of need.
“We remain committed to retreading as part of our operation. We are also committed to quality, and good tyres and good
retreading go hand in hand. Kenesei continues, “Of course, we use all of our own casings, so, largely, casing supply is not an issue for us. However, there are always casings that get damaged beyond repair, and there are some sizes where we always need more than we have available. For these tyres we have to go to the market to buy the casings that we need. “Of the Chinese tyres that we have tried, some we will not use again. By the time we get to buffing them down, we have found that they have failed in the shoulder area or they have splits in the crown area.” On casing supply, with the in- house supply chain the bulk of the supply is ensured, but there is still always some need for replacement casings. 275/75 x 22.5 is in short supply, and this is a popular size throughout Europe, so we do see some difficulty in finding the right quality of casings – particularly since the new tyre manufacturers have started focussing more on retreading in general. Another size where we often look for replacement casings is 295/80 22.5, which is mainly used on long distance buses.
“One challenge with the casings is that we need tyres with a speed index of J as these have stronger sidewalls and can take more abuse in urban use. The more common K-rated casings are simply not strong enough for urban use,” said Kenesei
The retread operation at ÉNYKK started back in 1980, in the Soviet era, and it started with quality, actually manufacturing Marangoni Ringtreads. However, by 1996 that process was discontinued and ÉNYKK continued retreading using Marangoni materials. Ringtreads are still part of the offer, as high as 50 per cent, but the mix now also includes pre-cure tread strips because in some applications the Ringtread is over specified.
The retread operation itself is what suits the market. There is a manual
inspection unit and an ITT shearography machine that is used on every single casing. Tyres are repaired when required, skived, filled, cement applied and tread mounted before being manually fitted with envelopes and cured in an eight tyre chamber.
The chamber cycles three times per day at present, and if the market recovers could produce a maximum of 7,000 units per annum. For 2014 the output was at 5,500.
Six staff run the retread unit on a shift that runs from 6:00 to 14:00. If overtime is needed the required
MEP-90
MEP-90 is a family retreading operation based in Szigethalom, south of Budapest. The owners are Gabriella and Miklósné Miszéry, and we met with Mrs. Miszéry at the offices of the retread plant. The history of the plant goes back
staff will start two hours earlier, and up to four hours later to meet seasonal demand.
It may seem curious that a bus company with a tied market sees seasonal demand, but stocks get built for the winter when buses see the harshest weathers and abuses, and through the summer months use is lower due to holidays and reduced timetables.
Stocks held at ÉNYKK are around 15 tonnes of tread, with a buffer stock of 5 tonnes and a regular order of 10 tonnes roughly every month.
In 1989 after the change of regime and the opening of the markets, Giancarlo Veronese from Marangoni encouraged the development of precure retreading. The partners visited a Bandag plant in Austria to see how the
Gabriella Miszéry managed MEP-90
to the 1970s with what was then the customary hot cure retreading plant, part of a co-operative operation under the then communist regime. There were three “partners” in the co- operative, and they also produced some car tyre retreads. At this point the co-operative built up a network of outlets.
operation could work and MEP-90 took out a license as a Bandag shop. At that time they operated two Bandag shops. Then, having seen other operations and learned something about the business, the partners ended the agreement with Bandag and sold the equipment back to them. However, the equipment was not collected and
This Kraiburg retreader operates with low overheads and a traditional plant, but is investing in new premises and a service outlet that shows a confidence in the future
32 Retreading Business