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PHOENIX TO TARGET
THEIR PATENTED RUBBER ACTIVATOR CONCEPT
Jean Prevost
Canadian rubber technology company Phoenix Innovation has announced that it is almost ready to launch their patented technology which has been under development for many years and which will allow licensees to be able to reintegrate their truck tyre buffings in tread compounds in a significant percentage.
The technology, called “Activator” is claimed to be unique and is refe- rred to as “Surface Activated Crumb Rubber (SA-CR)” since it is a surfa- ce activated process that forms an integral part of the compound. The rubber granules generated by buffing are not 1 devulcanized. Instead, they are surface activated to blend into the compound completely.
Jean Prévost, the President of Phoenix explains: “The uniqueness of the process is that we made it very simple to operate with few people, it is software driven, has a small footprint, is fully green, and has du- rable equipment. The rubber granules, once gone through the SA-CR process, change shape (swelling) and are therefore easily incorporated in a compound. We used a very large compounder for our latest tread compound, and they had glowing comments on how easily it blended in a compound compared to other compounds they do for other com- panies. The only issue is downsizing the scrap rubber to the right size. That could be set up in house by individual licensees and/or subcon- tracted to a local quality recycler.”
According to Prévost, Phoenix have now tested and proved the con- cept in an industrial size pilot plant facility and are now looking for inte- rested parties who might wish to reserve territories or early deliveries. In the initial phase of development, the company is specifically looking to target the retreading sector as it says it has received considerable interest in all aspects of reusing the buffings as part of a circular eco- nomy concept.
“We now have new retreads on several trucks with 16% of SA-CR in the treads, and statistics are being taken to compare to standard tyres. The technology has been proven and is now being tested to confirm again on retreads,” he claimed.
In terms of the process of getting ready to go to market, Prévost explai- ned that this is still several months away.
“When we started this adventure, we modified standard used equip-
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