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COMPANY NEWS
Aerial view of the CIMA plant
CIMA Invests in New Equipment and Products to Service Diverse Markets
Italian equipment manufacturer CIMA Impianti spa has made an 800,000 Euro investment in a new milling machine in order to achieve a better control of machine operations. This was revealed by Managing Director Massimo Capecchi during a recent visit to the company’s headquarters in Pistoia near Florence. According to Capecchi, the digging of the foundation works for the new machine started in November last year, and the machine is still in the process of being assembled.
The new machine, however, is far from the only investment being planned by CIMA. The company also revealed that it was planning to invest in modifying some of its mould manufacturing processes. Like many companies in the machinery manufacturing sector, CIMA’s business has changed dramatically since the 1990s. At that time, the heyday of the passenger tyre retreading sector in Europe, 70-80 per cent of the company’s business was in passenger car retreading. Today the picture is completely different.
The make-up of CIMA’s business in the retreading market varies from year to year depending on individual contracts, but today around 50 per cent of the company’s business with the retreading industr y comes from
two specialist niches – OTR and aircraft tyre retreading.
The very specialised business of aircraft tyres is one area where CIMA has developed a particular strength, thanks to the company’s ability to provide bespoke solutions for this sector. Although the aircraft tyre manufacturing industr y is highly consolidated, being focused under the main producers like Michelin, Bridgestone, Goodyear and Dunlop, plus one or two independents, Capecchi sees this as a market which is picking up, not least because of the continued increase in global air travel.
“Aircraft tyres are manufactured to be retreaded,” he says, “and in key markets like the US, retreading is inexorably tied up with the new tyre sales process – in other words tyres are effectively leased out as part of a total service package.”
The other major market area targeted by CIMA, namely the OTR retreading sector, received a major boost in 2006-7 when there was a severe shortage of new OTR tyres. The market has since levelled out, points out Capecchi, but the boom created a lucrative niche for CIMA all the same. Part of this has been created by the trend for mine owners to invest in their own retreading facilities.
An example of this was the complete OTR and truck tyre retreading plant bought a couple of years ago by Stevin Rock LLC in Ras al Khaimah, which operates one of the largest quarries in the world. The new plant represents one of the biggest private investments in OTR retreading in the world in recent years, and the owners have continued to add recent investments including the addition of a new press for 24.00 R 35 size OTR tyres. According to
Alessandro Vignolini, who together with Daniela Fanti and Manrico Diddi, manages CIMA’s sales, the plant has received substantial technical help from the main rubber supplier, Cooper, which has allowed the creation of an interesting and successful OTR plant operating at the very highest level.
Most of the retreads at the plant are manufactured using the mould cure process, says Vignolini; “The company still makes a small part of its production using the Smooth & Groove system, but we expect the plant to move over to 100
diverse markets in which CIMA is involved include moulds for memory pillows and moulds for stone grinding.
Although CIMA’s expertise in the retreading sector is in curing technology, the company also produces buffing and extrusion equipment. In the OTR sector CIMA produces a full range of equipment with the exception of autoclaves. Even here, CIMA has been active, and the company can now supply kits to retrofit and renovate autoclaves.
“We have done this with quite a few machines in the UK and have added remote control units
The main production hall
Massimo Capecchi, Daniela Fanti and Alessandro Vignolini in front of the company’s new mixing machine, currently in the process of being installed
per cent mould cure in due course.”
In recent years, CIMA has spent some time concentrating on diversifying into other areas. The company makes machines for the rubber curing process including vulcanising tank tracks, traction wheels, and machines for the conveyor belt industr y. The company has also developed an expertise in the steel industr y, where it is active in manufacturing, assembling and testing plants for rod-mills and other machiner y. Additional
so they can be serviced from Pistoia,” said Daniela Fanti. Indeed, remote control is the key to everything, and the company can now remotely control and service all of its equipment. What are CIMA’s aims globally? Massimo Capecchi is the first to admit that global expansion is not easy. “We have had to invest in lots of research and travelling,” he says, “maintaining contacts and developing new ones. We have developed many contacts in the Middle East and the Far East, but we have also
44 Retreading Business