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BIPAVER
The Retyre Project: Securing the Future of SME Retreading in Europe
each group. Once the worst case product is compliant, the whole group receives type approval. The problem is that retreaded tyres do not have type approval, nor do tests exist to test them according to the type approval regulations. It is one of BIPAVER’s goals for the near future to combine the contents of UN-ECE Reg 117 and ECE Reg 109 in order that retreads may also become type approved.
The second important piece of legislation is 1222/2009, the labelling regulation, which becomes effective in 2012. Here the situation is more complex. The Eco-labelling of a series of tyres requires the noise, wet grip and rolling resistance value of each tyre to be ascertained. However, since retreading is not a mass-production process and because retreads can be composed of a wide variety of treads and casings, with many variables, retreading tyres would, in principle, need
testing individually, an obvious impossibility.
BIPAVER has been looking for a solution to the problems posed by these regulations since 2005 and, after negotiations with Brussels, had been instrumental in helping secure temporary exemptions from both regulations.
However, the exemption from 1222/2009 calls for an EC review by March 2016 at the latest, and, with retreads making up 40 per cent of the market, BIPAVER considers it highly unlikely that retreads would manage to secure any further exemptions from the legislation. With testing in the region of 5,000 Euros per tyre, the position is clear. The retreading industr y must find within 4 years a way of labelling retreads to the satisfaction of the authorities if SME retreading in Europe is to survive.
Looking for a Solution
BIPAVER has long realised the potential implications of the forthcoming legislation and prior to 2009 work had already been carried out towards developing a testing project in line with the proposed regulations. However, the proposed research, the former BRV/BAST Project, was based on a relatively “simple” testing
programme of only 300 retreads. With the ongoing development of Reg 661 and, more importantly, with the introduction of the Eco-Label, it soon became clear that this particular programme was not sufficient. In 2009, following a number of meetings held in Brussels on behalf of BIPAVER members, it began to be understood that the only way BIPAVER would be able to raise enough funds to carr y out the level of testing required was to obtain funding within the European Commission’s FP7 Programme in conjunction with DG Research (Innovation). The project was hence reborn as the “Retyre” Project.
The Retyre Project
The aim of the testing programme, which will take place under the Retyre Project, is to create an IT-tool, which will allow BIPAVER to provide retreaders with predictive information on the likely wet grip, noise and rolling resistance values of their retreads without them having to test ever y single tyre. By carrying out a series of measurements, an algorithm will be able to be produced as the basic element for this IT- tool. The idea is that the use of this algorithm will become a part of ECE 109. In other words, ever y retreader within the EC will need to access the algorithm in order to be able to print Eco-labels and hence to produce retreads that are legal under EU legislation.
Initially the project has 13 consortium members. These are as follows: Kennis Centrum Leiden (the educational establishment, which is acting as the organiser of the project) the four trade associations BRV (Germany), AIRP (Italy), AER (Spain) and SVP-CR (Czech Republic), 5 retreaders, namely Banden Plan Europe, Reifen Ihle, Insa Turbo, Bandvulc and Carling, tread manufacturer Gummiwerk Kraiburg and the two testing establishments BAST and IDIADA.
EU projects like “Retyre” are all about milestones and the first milestone, assuming the project goes ahead, relates to rolling resistance testing. Bearing in mind the high degree of influence that the tyre casing has on rolling resistance, one of
If you are a European retreader you may well have already heard something about the Retyre project, perhaps from your national retreading association, through the pages of this magazine or even direct from BIPAVER, the European Federation of Retreading Associations, who have been looking to find ways of testing retreads for noise, wet grip and rolling resistance for several years, in order to protect the retreading industry against the negative effects of future legislation. However, you might not be fully aware of how critical this project might prove to be in securing the future of SME retreading in Europe.
At BIPAVER’s annual general meeting in Bologna, the Federation, in announcing that they had achieved initial approval for the 2.5 million Euro project and were now due to attend a final negotiation meeting to secure the necessary
funding, left members in no doubt that the ver y existence of retreading within the EC was at stake, should the project not be successful. That being the case, perhaps it is time for European retreaders to be made more fully aware of the project, its future scope and the implications for all retreaders across Europe.
EC Regulations and their Effect on the Retreading Industry
There are two key EC regulations, with which BIPAVER have been concerned in recent years.
The first of these is the General Safety Regulation 661/2009, which replaces 92/23, our tyre bible, as of November 1, 2017. This regulation is related to the Type Approval of vehicles and their components, including tyres, and operates by defining families of products and testing the worst case product within
Rolling resistance will become a major issue for retreaders to address in future - but it may not always involve physical testing
12 Retreading Business