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h new ContiLifeCycle Plant
Based in Hannover-Stöcken, the new retreading factory, built with the help of a grant from the Environment Ministry under the German Government’s Environmental Innovation Programme, will have a projected annual ca- pacity of 180,000 retreaded tyres once it has reached full capacity, includ- ing 150,000 Contire mould cure retreads and 30,000 pre-cure retreads using Continental’s ContiTread tread strips. The 17,000 sq m open plan facility, which includes storage space for up to 16,000 casings, began pro- duction in September and is gradually ramping up production. The plant is currently only running one shift but according to Christian Sass, Head of Retread Business Truck Tires EMEA, the plan is to operate a three shift
Most of the equipment in the plant is from Marangoni including the very and additional sidewall brushing, as well as an Alpha Twin buffer. The plant also includes a shearography machine from SDS-Systemtechnik and inspection equipment from Akar Makina. The envelopes used in the pre-cure plant are from Kraiburg.
The ContiLifeCycle Plant is intended to serve as a competence centre for the company’s other LifeCycle businesses on a worldwide basis. These include the company’s factories in Petaling Jaya (Malaysia), Cuenca (Ec- uador) and Morelia (Mexico).
The company has also developed an on-site training facility, the ContiL- ifeCycle Academy, in the plant for training both internal and external staff on different topics of retreading.
As part of the ContiLifeCycle Plant, Continental has developed a recy- powder is put through a series of different processing steps to reverse the curing process. The recycled material is claimed to be of such high and controlled quality that it can be used for tyre compounding without hesita- tion,” remarks Dr. Boris Mergell, Vice President Product Development & from Continental’s new ContiLifeCyle retreading factory will be completely used in the recycling facility. This results in the reduction of waste by more
Continental has actually used conventional recycled rubber in serial pro- duction since 2009 at a level of 3%. However, according to Mergell, the new facility has the potential to increase the rubber recycling share to 6% due to the fact that the ContiReclaim can be used in areas where conven- tional reclaim can’t be applied. The capacity of the recycling plant is 4,000 tonnes of material per annum.
manager. “With our ContiRe tyres made in Stöcken, we offer our custom- ers a product portfolio that is economically and ecologically sustainable. Environmentally-friendly production techniques and raw material usage in the ContiLifeCyle Plant are complemented by low rolling resistance of our
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