Page 24 - RB-65-13-2

INDIAN RUBBER EXPO
polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in treads for retreading, making the sale of treads containing extender oils that exceed the limits set out in the legislation illegal in Europe with effect from January 2010. This has had the effect of forcing tread rubber suppliers selling in
UNECE Directive 117.02 is mandator y type approval legislation for components, from which retreads, for the time being, are excepted. In addition to the type homologations for new tyres (R 30 for passenger and R 54 for truck) Regulation 117 also regulates now noise
able to operate unless a way was found to get round the problem. The potential saviour for the European retread market is the so-called “Retyre Project”, which is a 2.4 million Euro project developed by BIPAVER and funded to the tune of 1.8 million Euros by an EC grant under the EC’s FP7 programme. The aim of the project is to
carr y out a huge testing programme in order to create an algorithm that will allow the creation of a labelling tool that will predict, noise, wet grip and rolling resistance values, allowing the retreading industr y to meet the requirements of the legislation.
At the beginning of April 2012 the ReTyre project got the green light with regards to the funding and the project has now begun. So how is the project being carried out?
The sourcing of the materials, the collection and testing of casings, the buffing, the shearography, the measurement, the retreading processes, hot and cold including every element of manufacture is the sole responsibility of BIPAVER. The project is supported by a number of BIPAVER member associations as well as five individual retreaders – Bandvulc in the UK, Insa Turbo in Spain, Reifen Ihle in Germany, Bandenplan/K argro in the Netherlands and and Carling in the Czech Republic. The technical partners for testing are IDIADA in Spain, BAST in Germany and Vortech in the Netherlands.
The ReTyre project requires that a reference be established and that has to start with the selection of the right casings, buffing, brands, sizes etc. It is imperative that the materials used are correct and that the data collected is exact.
In order to establish a standard reference, all the initial retreading work is being carried out by Reifen Ihle in Germany. This is no reflection on any of the other participants in the project, but rather a question of proximity to the key players and Brussels.
There are four stages to the project.
Step one is to test new tyres and casings of various ages (2, 4 and 6 years old) with differing tread
depths.
The idea of this process is to establish the influence that the casing has on the performance of the tyre to try and establish the constants in the casing measurements. This is a critical phase because if no correlation is found, or the parameters are too wide then the whole project fails. This first stage has now been completed and BIPAVER is waiting for the results, although first indications are that it has been successful and the second stage of the research can go ahead.
In Step Two of the project BIPAVER has to create the database for the tread. Here there are a wide number of variables and BIPAVER can only measure the key tread patterns, sizes and compounds, but they will look at the variables for each retread, including the process type, tread pattern, depth, position and use. The measuring at this stage will be carried out in Spain and will include road and drum testing to in line with the requirements of 117 homologation. The tests will be against a standard reference tyre, but the results can only be shown as “better” or “worse”. A table of references and tolerances will be then be built up. This can only be done in line with ISO standards and to 117.02, with existing common sizes (there can be no inclusion at this stage of exotic sizes or tread patterns). This will be the longest period of the project as the measurements will have to be accurate and there are many variables to be accounted for. However, it is an important step as only the real data will be acceptable.
In Step Three BIPAVER will be looking at specific treads, compounds, shore hardness, design, position, weight, use and size of tread with testing both on drums and on the track again. Here once again the ability to meet with the requirements of R177 will dictate the future.
Finally in Step Four, all the data will be gathered together to develop the algorithm, allowing the SME Retreader to predict the performance of his retreads. All the parameters will be able to be utilised to design the tyre
Europe to change the make-up of their tread compounds. Another piece of European legislation, which is currently the subject of discussions 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 definitions of waste, recycling and recover y. It explains when waste ceases to be waste and becomes a secondary raw material (so called end-of-waste criteria), and how to distinguish between waste and by-products.
This particular piece of legislation is applied differently in different countries in Europe. In Italy, for example, there’s a specific legal provision saying that casings are not waste. In the UK, though, the Environment Agency’s interpretation is that casings remain waste until after retreading, which requires casing sorting companies and retreaders to have waste carriers licenses.
The ETRMA is currently lobbying the European parliament to adopt end-of- waste status for casings, which it says, will give a much needed boost to the retreading market. This brings us on to the two pieces of legislation, which have the biggest potential impact on the retreading market in Europe, namely the type approval directive 117.02 and the tyre labelling regulation 1222/2009.
and in the future will also cover rolling resistance and wet grip, the data, which is covered in the labelling regulation 1222/2009.
The retreading industry has no type homologation – R 108 and 109 is a certification of production – based on tests in line with new tyre test methods. This due to the fact that retreads cannot be defined as a type of product because there and many different types of parameters in the production process (casing, compound, pattern, shore hardness, etc) which vary in many different combinations (about 8,000 according to BIPAVER). It has been made clear that retreads will be granted exemption from this legislation only for a limited time (currently considered to 2017 at the latest). After this time if retreads cannot meet the criteria set out under R117, the product will be banned and SME retreading in Europe will be dead.
The deadlines under the 1222/2009 labelling regulation are similar. Retreads are currently exempt from the new legislation, which became effective for new tyres last November. However, the legislation calls for a review on this exemption by early 2016. Because retreads have such a high share in Europe, it is considered unlikely that retreads would be exempted again. With testing per tyre costing 5,000 Euros, SME retreaders would simply not be
24 Retreading Business