Titan: Making 63-inch OTR tyres a challenge

By Kathy McCarron, ERJ staff (TB)

BRYAN, Ohio-Producing the world's largest tyres is, to say the least, “a real challenge.”

Due to their size and cure time, it requires an entire 8-hour shift to produce one 63-inch rim diameter, 10,000-pound tyre at Titan Tire Corp.'s Bryan plant.

The 63-inch tyre “is the toughest to develop,” said Don Long, customer supply manager at the Bryan plant, adding, “There's enormous interest in getting that size. Michelin and Bridgestone are the only other suppliers. So there is a desire to have an alternative. So that's good for Titan.”

The company, which debuted its behemoth in 2008, has developed a second-generation line with compound improvements and a multi-ply nylon radial carcass to reduce failures-just in time to meet a resurgence in demand for mining tyres.

The market slowed down in 2007 but last year the worldwide demand returned, and that has prompted Titan to ramp up production at the plant this year.

“Right now, with the commodities prices since the second half of 2010, demand is tremendous,” Mr. Long said. The plant has implemented swing shifts seven days a week for the 57- and 63-inch tyre production.

“We have moved the ag machines to the other plants and concentrated on OTR tyres here,” Mr. Long said. The equipment the plant has “is not used to its fullest capacity. That's the next step.”

Titan also has factories in Des Moines, Iowa, and Freeport, Ill., that produce farm and small OTR tyres.

The Bryan facility has the ability to add curing presses and expand capacity in the 500,000-sq.-ft. building Titan purchased from Continental Tire North America Inc., as it was known in 2006. Soon after the acquisition, Titan built a 250,000-sq.-ft. addition that now houses production of the giant tyres.

The plant, which employs 320, produces OTR tyres ranging from 25-inch sizes that weigh about 300 pounds to the “ultra-class” tyres-49-, 51-, 57- and 63-inch rim diameter sizes.

About 40 percent of OTR tyre building at the Bryan plant requires manual work and an assembly line process. Two people are needed to make a 63-inch tyre to help reduce the physical work, Mr. Long said.

The plant houses a research-and-development lab and uses quality inspectors to X-ray the tyre belt packages.

Each OTR tyre is moulded with a unique serial number so the company can track the tyre's production history if there should be a failure in the field.

About 20 percent of the tyres produced are cross-ply. Mr. Long said there always will be a demand for cross-ply tyres from about 25 percent of the market because of the need for side flex in tyres on such vehicles as loaders and port container handlers.

The 51-inch tyre is considered “the bread and butter in mining,” according to Mr. Long. “Eventually it will be the highest volume tyre we make in sheer numbers. There's a huge demand.”

The 63-inch tyre is mainly used in large open mines, particularly on the massive 400-ton trucks driven on the oil sands of Alberta, Canada, which has the largest concentration of such trucks, Mr. Long said.

The company's main competitors in the 63-inch tyre market are Michelin North America Inc. and Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, although Goodyear is testing 63-inch OTR tyres and hopes to launch them by April.

“The OTR business is cyclical. That's why companies are reluctant to invest (in ultra-class tyre equipment). That's why there's been a shortage in OTR tyres,” Mr. Long said.

There are challenges for the exclusive group of giant tyre makers.

The 57- and 63-inch tyres run about 5,000 to 6,000 hours-about 250 days-while mining vehicles run 365 days a year, Mr. Long said. The tyres' greatest enemy is the heat they generate and to a lesser extent the rocks and road hazards on the mine roads.

So Titan developed the multi-ply nylon radial carcass so the tyres would run cooler since nylon is less conductive than steel. The company also changed the tyre compounds at different stress points.

“The basic design concept comes from aircraft tyres,” Mr. Long said. Titan is offering the ultra-class tyres with or without sipes. The sipes help the tyre run cooler but they also can collect rocks within the grooves.

The changes to the compounding and belts are aimed at reducing impact breaks when the tyre travels over rocks.

“The carcass lasting is not the issue. Most tyres fail in the belt package,” he said.

The nylon carcass also may help with a “huge”' issue now facing the mining industry-tyre recycling. Mr. Long said the nylon carcass is more recyclable and could make the 63-inch tyres retreadable. Historically, the 63-inch tyres experience failure in the belt package before they can be retreaded, he said.

“The mines are realising they need to keep their roads clean to avoid impact breaks,” Mr. Long said.

Such issues may impact the future of giant mining vehicles. “More mines are rethinking the 400-ton trucks because of the extreme maintenance and tyre costs, and the roads have to be maintained to use them,” he said.

To help reduce the costs of the giant tyres, Titan is looking at changing how tyres are shipped from its plant. One of the major costs is shipping the tyres on flat-bed, wide-load trucks.

The company is working on a truck design that would allow the tyres to be shipped vertically instead of on their sides, Mr. Long said. While transporting vertically reduces the number of tyres per truck-about three 57- or 63-inch tyres vs. five-it would eliminate the costs for escorts, reduce state transport permit fees and cut travel time since some state regulations prohibit wide loads from travelling at night, Mr. Long said.

“The impact on transportation costs would be huge. It would be quicker,” he said.

Meanwhile, Titan is developing a larger wheel-a 73-inch diameter rim for a low-profile 63-inch tyre that would reduce sidewall flex. Selling tyre/wheel packages to OTR customers “is on the horizon,” Mr. Long said, but it may initially be a “tough sale” in the aftermarket due to the cost.

Is there a larger tyre in the future? “That would be a huge challenge. A huge challenge,” Mr. Long said. “But that's what companies do.”

From Tire Business (A Crain publication)