Rubber renaissance for Fecken-Kirfel
ERJ staff report (TP)
Cologne, Germany – Axel Wynands, General Manager Sales at Fecken-Kirfel, said the Tire Technology Expo 2014 (TTE) was “special” for them as they seek to get their splitting and cutting machines back in the spotlight.
ERJ spoke with Wynands at the TTE two days ago.
“We have a machine that’s not new, but nobody knows about it," he said. “We sold it 40 or 50 times with Continental, Bridgestone and Michelin, but that was many years back.”
With a change of personnel at these companies, Fecken-Kirfel felt their machines needed to be brought back to the attention of the tire industry. In the past they were linked to truck tires, but nowadays the focus is on car tires.
The K21 splitting machine can “separate the cap from the base”. This means before a product is vulcanised it can split the rubber components into two sections, so companies can use it again. This avoids throwing the rubber away and ultimately saves costs.
Wynands said that in some reported cases, companies have been able to save €9,000 per day by using Fecken-Kirfel’s machines.
“I think we are the only one doing this worldwide. People can’t believe this is possible, because once components are combined together it’s really hard to separate,” he said.
Based in Aachen, Germany, the firm has big plans for 2014, but as Wynands explained: “We already do 90 percent exports and have done this for 145 years. We are nearly in each country with our machines on this planet.
“From Japan to the US, from Ecuador to Bangladesh – everywhere you will find a Fecken-Kirfel machine.
“It doesn’t matter where [we expand] – our biggest market is Western Europe followed by the US. The Asian market is very interesting as we see a big growth. West and East Europe are very stable – nowadays stable is good – we are really happy with the situation.”
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