Retreaded car tires hardly play a role anymore because of cheap imports from the Far East. There are good ecological reasons to use tires longer.
Olaf Zschau is very precise. He lifts one tire after the other from a stack and inspects it for damage to the flank. They are used tires.
As soon as he was unloading from the truck, he let the freshly delivered tires roll through the hall and thus assessed the concentricity. In this way, Zschau inspects about 400 tires per shift. When asked about his function, the trained bricklayer replies: “I’m the incoming inspector here.”
Zschau works at Reifen Hinghaus in Dissen near Osnabrück, the only remaining manufacturer of retreaded car tires in Germany. As late as the 1980s, there were many more companies retreading passenger car tires, says Obika Julius, sales manager at Reifen Hinghaus. “We now only have 10 to 20 car tire retreaders across Europe.” The image of retreaded tires has not been particularly good in recent decades. In comparison tests – for example by the ADAC – they performed relatively poorly. But that should change.
On the way to becoming a serious alternative
According to the German Federal Foundation for the Environment (DBU), around 570,000 tons of old tires accumulate in Germany every year. For the most part, they are incinerated or processed into rubber granules and rubber powder. However, this costs a lot of energy and material – which is why the foundation supports the Allianz Future Tires (AZuR) network, which aims to ensure that retreaded tires are seen as a serious alternative to new tires over the next few years. With the DBU project, a life cycle assessment for retreading is to be developed. “The best recycling is retreading, because we use the tire longer,” says AZuR project manager Christina Guth.
In the commercial vehicle sector, retreads are already playing a major role, says Guth, with 30 percent of bus and truck tires currently being retreaded. The network wants to work towards increasing the proportion to a good 50 percent over the next seven years. Commercial vehicle tires are retreaded up to three times, aircraft tires up to twelve times. There are even suppliers of retreaded tires in the motorsport sector.
Large tire manufacturers such as Michelin or Bridgestone offer retreaded commercial vehicle tires themselves. According to Michelin, a retread saves up to 50 kilograms of raw materials. On average, only 20 kilos of material are added to a carcass, which is a saving of 70 percent compared to a newly manufactured tire. Competitor Continental has also been offering retreaded truck tires for a long time, says spokeswoman Laura Averbeck.
conviction asked
So now drivers should also be convinced of the ecological advantages of retreaded car tires. Technologically, a lot has happened in the past 20 years, says Julius. “We also work with laser measurements.” The principle of applying the new tread is identical to that used in the new tire industry. The fact that the tires from Hinghaus performed relatively poorly in the ADAC comparative tests was due to a non-optimal rubber compound. The tire manufacturer assures that this has been improved with the help of external consultants.
ADAC spokeswoman Melanie Mikulla says that retreading car tires offers a great opportunity to protect resources. The fact that customers were not so interested in retreads in the past is due to the fact that new tires were already available at comparable prices. This did not create any economic incentive to switch to retreaded tires.
No problem up to 160 km/h
Retreaded tires certainly couldn’t replace expensive premium tires, says Julius. “Our aim is to be at the level of the B brands in terms of quality.” AZuR project manager Guth is also convinced that nowadays it is possible for retreaded and cheap new tires to have the same level of quality. She doesn’t see any safety concerns. Retreads may not be for super sports cars – but: “Up to a speed of 160 I would not have any concerns.”
Reifen Hinghaus only takes certain premium brands as the basis for retreading, says Julius. The carcass remains, the old tread is milled off and a new one is vulcanized on. One aim of the project financed by the DBU is to ensure that only tires that can be retreaded are imported into Europe, says Guth.
Continental is also considering getting into the retreading of car tires, says company spokeswoman Averbeck. “In particular, we are investigating how close you can get to the properties of a new car tire with a retreading process.”
Ultimately, the topic of tire retreading fits well at a time when many prefer to use refurbished smartphones rather than brand new devices, say Guth and Julius. Hinghaus is working on developing special tires for electric cars like Tesla. “We believe that the drivers of these cars are very interested in sustainability,” says Julius.
Source From: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
