Tire technology for ring production and retreading.

Ever since the process was first used in the years immediately after the end of World War II, the retreading of truck tires has evolved from a prevalently craftsman-like procedure to a high-tech process, following a series of innovations and continual improvements. This has brought the quality of retreads ever closer to that of new tires, in terms of reliability, safety and performance, to the point where retreads are today used more than new tires by transport fleets all over the world.

The basic idea of the company's Ringtread ring is to apply the same principles used in the production of new tires to retreading, thus creating a new category that blurs the traditional distinction between new tires and retreads.

Just like new tires, each Ringtread ring is made individually in a centripetal press, which allows the tread, already during production, to take on the final form it will have once applied to the casing being retreaded, without any tension or deformation that may affect performance, and without the joint that is typical of retreading with strips.

Ringtread compounds are similar to those used in the best new tires, and specifically formulated for the intended tire application. The individual production of each ring allows the vulcanization parameters to be perfectly set according to the type of tread pattern and compound used. The precured tread strips used in traditional retreading, being prevalently produced in multilevel flat presses, must on the other hand use the same vulcanization parameters (temperature, pressure, time) for all the tread molds fitted in the presses.

As well as the evident advantages in the quality of the finished product, the ring production technology is said to be unique in the precured tread sector for having been able to effectively apply the concept of highly-flexible production modules that is leading the technological innovations in the production of new tires. From a customer service point of view, the concept of one ring = one tire is said to allow manufacturing capacity to be adapted to market demand practically in real time, programming each individual press based on customer requirements.

The company's latest innovation in the production of rings is the development of a fully automated molding technology called Alpharing. With this technology, the entire molding process is controlled by integrated software that manages all its phases, from the extrusion of the raw rubber directly into the core of the molds, to the packaging of the finished ring, ensuring a continuous operator-free cycle, and thus optimizing the quality of the finished product without increasing costs. The modularity and automation of the Alpharing system is said to reduce space required for the production of rings by around 50% compared to the traditional system.

Ringbuilder machines are offered in version 3000 for the large retreading industries, and version 2500 for medium-sized businesses.

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