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INDIAN RUBBER EXPO
Technology and Legislation Driving Change in the West
on the retreading market in Europe are the type approval directive 117.02 and the tyre labeling regulation 1222/2009. David Wilson noted that the potential savior for the independent European retread market is the so-called
market, David Wilson in his presentation said, “Radialisation is still low in India, though it is catching up with growth in the share of multi-axle trucks, national highway projects, improved conditions of road network.”
Truck tyre radialisation in India had been on backstage for a long time, it is starting moving-up slowly and now it is quite rapidly rising, crossing the 15 – 20 per cent level. “Radialisation is actually around 35 per cent in terms of ‘mileage’, because the total mileage given by radial tyres with two retreads is around 2.3
Technology and legislation are the key influencing factors for changing the global retreading industry. “Technology and legislation have influenced the world’s two most developed markets, North America and Europe as well as what is happening in other developing markets around the world,” was the message provided by David Wilson of UK based Retread Manufacturers Association in his keynote presentation entitled “The Effect of Technological and Legislative Developments in the Field of Retreading”, at a workshop on ‘Retreading Technology’ at the India Rubber Expo & Tyre Show at Mumbai recently. Wilson’s presentation was ably delivered by Mr PK Mohamed of Apollo Tyres, due to the fact that the writer himself was unable to attend the conference because of illness.
The presentation recognised the US as the biggest and most stable retreading market in the world. “Development of a verification programme by the US Environmental Protection Agency under the EPA Smartway Certification Programme is the latest development. Once a retreaded tyre receives EPA certification, fleets using these tyres will be compliant with CARB regulations for low rolling resistance tyres,” informed Wilson.
The presentation pointed out that the retread market in Europe is steadily falling but France remains the biggest retread market in Europe followed by the UK and Scandinavia. David Wilson stated, “Legislation has been the biggest influence on the European retreading market over the last ten years.” The European Community (EC) ushered in legislation such as UNECE 108
and 109, which were confirmed as law in 2006. The legislation envisages that retread producers effectively became ‘licensed’ operations, a move that ensures retread tyres are on par with of new tyres at least in quality and integrity. “The legislation led to the closure of poor quality retreaders and those who did not want to invest in necessary processes to comply with, raising the standard across Europe,” Wilson observed. Besides that, Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) is another important piece of legislation that restricts the use of polyaromatic hydrocarbon in treads for retreading.
Another key European legislation, under discussion within the retreading industry is the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC, which sets the basic concepts and definitions related to waste management in Europe such as definition of waste, recycling and recovery.
The two new and exciting elements of legislation which are going to have the biggest impact
‘Retyre Project’. According to Wilson, “Retyre Project is a 2.4 million Euro project developed by BIPAVER and funded to the point of 1.8 million Euros by an EC grant under the EC’s FP7 programme.” It aims to carr y out a huge testing programme in order to create an algorithm that will allow the creation of a labeling tool that will predict noise, wet grip and rolling resistance values, allowing the retreading industr y to meet the requirements of the legislation. He also acknowledged that improvements in compounding technology and in retreading machinery have made significant contributions towards the quality of retreaded tyres. Automatic and computerised buffing and building machines as well as the advent of sophisticated inspection equipment like shearography have helped retreaders back up their claims the retreads can perform as well as new tyres. David Wilson also emphasised the importance of developing markets to have access to such modern plants. Commenting on the India
times more when compared to Bias tyres,” observed T Ashokanad of Elgi Rubber Company Limited in his presentation “Radialisaion and Retreading”.
Regarding retreading, the presentation stated that whilst India boasted a large number of retreaders, there is still a dearth of good retreading facilities across the country, except in certain pockets. Ashokanand pointed out, “Non-availability of an educated and trained workforce and ill-equipped retreading facilities are also posing a big problem for radial tyre makers in India.” The presentation summed-up that radials give the lowest cost per km and
retreading is the key to achieving the best cost per kilometre. Once India has the retreading and repairing network in place, radialisation will be on even faster track.
18 Retreading Business