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recent appointment of Kai Tan as President of International Sales. Tan, who is now based at Nam Bee’s new US offices in Los Angeles, California, further increased the Malaysian
company’s profile at the show with an in depth analysis of the ASEAN rubber industry during the show’s conference programme.
wear and tear and minimises the risk of overheating.
“Clients can come to us and we will help them establish an Acutread hot cure line, with all the technology and all the support and tried and tested equipment – some new, and some rebuilt to our specication. We have taken, for example, old Orbitread buildres and rebuilt them with full bearings and digital interfaces that provide a
smoother operating and more accurate building process that saves rubber, time and labour.” Like most modern retread plants, Acutread offers fully automatic buffing, precision rubber application and modern environmentally friendly efficient mould cure presses and every tyre is tracked through the whole process using a bar coding system.
Acutread Alliance
In mature markets, hot cure retreading offers a high quality solution to retreading. It takes the casing and buffs it down, bead to bead, and can include bead repairs, and effectively rebuilds the tread on a “green equivalent” casing, almost exactly in the same way that a new tyre is built. The building process eliminates the possibility of air voids, and
than that required for pre-cure. However, Acutread, is a licensable solution to accessing hot cure. Rob Majewski told Retreading Business, “The tyres that we have on the stand are straight out of the moulds, we have trimmed some flashing but there has been no polishing, just tyres taken out of the line. So, hot cure can offer a high quality retread for the premium market.
“Acutread has been formed from a group of tyre experts who wanted to offer a high quality hot cure retread package. We have used our expertise and experience to establish a range of equipment,
compounds and processes that give a premium standard output all of the time, ever y time.
“We don’t mess around with compounds, we have a compound that works, and our products are SmartWay verified. Ever y tyre that we produce has a matched finish diameter, there is no difference in diameter or circumference between any tyres, on any casings, in any size range. They can all be matched so that there is an even load on twinned axles, which reduces
Hules Banda Report Good Business at New Orleans Show
Mexican tread rubber manufacturer Hules Banda once again offered a strong presence at the North American Tire and Retread Expo in New Orleans and reported strong business both from new and existing customers.
“We have had a steady stream of quality retreaders visit our stand during the show,” said CEO Heriberto Romero. “We
have been able to interact with at least thirty of our existing customers as well as perhaps 15 new prospects, so we are happy with the results of the show,” he added. Romero is pictured here with key members of the Bandamatic sales team and a group of key customers from Colombia and Nicaragua at an evening event hosted by the company.
the finished tyre can be branded to suit the producer or the end user – in theory, a large user could have its own brand of retreads.
In a proper hot cure process, quality is never an issue. There are no layers, no voids, no stitching, just a built rubber that is hot cured in a press in exactly the same way as a new tyre.
The main barrier to hot cure is the cost of the equipment, which is considerably greater
54 Retreading Business
RTA at NATRE
The Retread Tire Association was represented by Jeffrey Parks, the organisation’s administrator. Unfortunately, Harvey Brodsky wasn’t able to make the show, though Jeffrey Parks tells Retreading Business that Harvey Brodsky is just as effervescent and enthusiastic as ever and continues to drive the RTA in its campaign to improve the understanding of retreads
around the world.
The RTA now has some 360 members spread across the globe and constantly educates members, the trade and consumers alike about the quality and the values of retreaded tyres of all types. Parks was kept busy throughout the show answering queries from both members and non- members about how the RTA