CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NOV 2018

TYRE CONSTRUCTION OVERVIEW

conditions, you will not necessarily utilise 100% of the product because of premature damages to the sidewalls prior to the tyre’s end of life. For that reason, there is still more bias product working underground than radial. In general, the radial tyre is lightweight, easier and safer to mount, comes with less inventory, is easy to service and offers better balance than its bias counterpart. DL: Like many other industries, we see a lot of automation in the tyre manufacturing industry. There is a big move towards smart factories, which will definitely change the construction of a tyre quite significantly. In the passenger and light truck side of the business, we also see that driverless vehicles have become a hot topic and there are many questions to be answered regarding their tyres. For example, what do you do with a driverless vehicle when it has a flat tyre and who will replace it? How do you develop a tyre to be able to cater for that? There is also a global trend towards electrical vehicles, both on the passenger and truck side of things. Bear in mind that an electrical vehicle is very quiet, so the noise of the tyre should also be at a lower level. That calls for a different kind of tyre construction and pattern. We also have to deal with issues of torque. Of course the grip of the tyre is very important, but too much grip on an electrical vehicle affects the power of the motor. So, the tyre development process will go through some interesting changes to meet these changing dynamics. MS: Tell me more about the new developments in tyre management solutions. DL: We have seen big developments in tyre management systems, with tyres being able to provide information – such as wear rate, inflation and when to replace, among others. This allows for important decisions to be made timeously. We have already seen some of these developments on the run flat tyres, where there is a tyre pressure monitoring system which communicates with the driver technologies hard at work in the mining and construction industries. Through technology we install inside the tyre, you can monitor inflation rates, heat build-up, wear rate and other important parameters from the control room. These technologies will soon become more sought after, not only on the passenger and light truck side of things, but also in the mining and construction sectors where downtime due to a wrongly inflated tyre is out of question. b MS: What are some of the key trends in the tyre industry? if there is need to inflate a tyre. We also have tyre management

increased OEM business for us as a local tyre manufacturer. However, to meet OEM requirements, we need to have a strong innovation pipeline. OEMs have certain specification requirements for their tyres and we need to keep up with technology to be able to supply the kind of product they require at any given time. Some of their specific requirements at this stage include environmentally-friendly products, fuel saving and low rolling resistance tyres, among others. For us to meet these new requirements, we have to spend capital in tooling our plants with required technologies. Consequently, the Brits plant will enjoy most of the capital investment budget because it is the one that supplies OEMs. DL: We are still finalising our four-year investment plan, but we have some idea of how much we want to spend. We will probably spend R1-billion on new equipment in the next three years. From a technology perspective, we are looking at new rubber mixing technology to be able to produce the low rolling resistance compound. We are also looking at requirements to produce a lighter product, and we will spend money in our stock preparation area for light belt construction. We will also spend some capital in our tyre building and curing areas. It is important to note that, as one of the leading tyre manufacturers globally, we have a process of continuous improvement to become better in what we do. To be at the top of our game, we have to continuously MS: What sort of investment and equipment are you looking at?

invest in new technologies that make our product superior. In a nutshell, our capital investment is very much in line with the requirements of the OEMs, the consumer and, of course, our drive to have a superior product in the marketplace. MS: How is the PE plant performing to date considering the cyclical nature of the sectors it serves? DL: We have a substantial market share in the mining sector, but the majority of the product is not necessarily from the PE plant. We also import product from our plants overseas for the mining industry. The product from the PE plant is mainly for underground mining, and the larger tyres for surface mining are imported from our overseas plants. Our product for the agricultural sector is mainly tractor tyres, both rear and front. We have seen a big move towards radial than bias tyres in these sectors. As a result, there is pressure on the PE plant because demand for its bias product is low. The two reasons are that, firstly the market is moving towards more radialiasation than bias, and secondly the underground mining industry, mainly the platinum sector, is under pressure due to lower commodity prices. MS: Why is there a big move towards radialisation? DL: Efficiency is a big drive. Radialisation gives a better performance of the product, especially when it comes to light truck and larger truck tyres, but not necessarily mining. With underground mining, it largely depends on underfoot conditions. In underground

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS NOVEMBER 2018 29