Mesnac inaugurates smart factory centre, launches new machinery

Qingdao, China – Mesnac has inaugurated a new 'smart factory experience centre' at the company's site in Qingdao, Shandong.

The facility is designed to showcase Mesnac’s machinery portfolio and processes, said to cover 80% of what a typical tire plant requires.

Officially opened on on 17 Sept, the centre also has research and testing units for new or customised machinery.

Engineers can inspect a machine before it’s built via virtual reality and conduct trial runs before installing it in tire plants.

At the opening, Mesnac officials also highlighted the company’s ambitions in new market areas and in technologies, such as liquid mixing.

“The experience center is just a start,” said Mesnac’s newly appointed chairman He Ning said at the event

“In the future maybe a tire maker can rent Mesnac’s facilities for production instead of building its own plant,” added the company’s former chairman Yuan Zhongxue.

Mesnac also took the opportunity to launch a new machine model called TPRO-S, a uni-stage three-drum tire building machine for truck and bus tires.

Compared to last-gen machinery, the fully modularised new model is designed to increase average dynamic balance by 20% and uniformity by 15%.

With up to 500 tires daily output, it is said to reduce cycle time by nearly 20% to 150 seconds and requires only two operators.

A full report on Mesnac's new smart factory centre and future plans will appear in the Nov/Dec issue of European Rubber Journal magazine, which includes our annual Global Tire Report.