Marangoni System a ‘Reliable Alternative’ to Delocalisation

After working for over half a century in the tyre sector, the Marangoni group claims the distinction of being one of only a few players in the global tyre industry to be fully active across the spectrum of tyre industry sectors; from the production of new tyres to industrial-scale retreading, from the design to the development of machinery for the production of tyres, from the manufacturing of retreading systems to the distribution of the finished product to end users. These activities, currently carried out by a staff of over 1,800 in 10 production branches in Italy, Germany, North America and Brazil, led in 2006 to a consolidated turnover of 339.8 million euros, a 10 per cent increase compared with the previous year.

However, despite the company’s diversification of business activities, Marangoni’s original core business is still the area in which it is most active. Marangoni reports that today the production of retreaded tyres and precured treads, along with the supply of systems and machinery for hot and cold retreading, accounts for 60 per cent of the Marangoni Group’s turnover. According to these figures the Italian company is Europe’s second largest company in the retreading sector, behind Michelin, and the largest in its domestic market. In addition to producing retreaded tyres for most types of application (from heavy-duty vehicles to earth-moving machinery, from cars to forklift trucks, from SUVs to industrial machinery) at its Rovereto plant in northern Italy, the largest facility of its kind in Europe, Marangoni has developed a set of state-of-the-art solutions such as the cold retreading Ringtread system, on the basis of its long-standing experience.

The Ringtread system, with its joint-free application of tread onto the tyre casing, has proven to be a winner, says Marangoni, both in regards of the quality of the finished product and in the ease and speed of industrial production. With this system, it is possible to produce retreaded tyres which, thanks to the absence of joints and lower deformation of the tread, have longer wear-life and which, by virtue of lower rolling resistance, ensure a reduction in fuel consumption.

Marangoni’s Ringtread technology has been further optimised with help of a 5 million euro investment in the Ferentino plant, which saw the introduction of the RMS (Ring Modular System) project, as reported by T&A at the start of November. By fully renewing the plant’s production chain and turning it into an integrated continuous cycle, Marangoni is confident that tyres retreaded with Ringtread rings are able to compete at the same level as new tyres in terms of performance, and beat the new tyre competition in terms of economic performance, energy saving and environmental protection.

By introducing the RMS project, the Ferentino plant has adopted a set of technological innovations that optimise and, whenever possible, eliminate specific steps of the existing production process, making the process quicker and minimising production, including labour, costs. This last point, emphasises Marangoni, means that their RMS system can be considered a reliable alternative to the worldwide school of thought that thinks of shifting to less costly production locales as the only solution to the problems posed by a mature product.

“These technological innovations” Massimo De Alessandri, Marangoni Group CEO explains, “are part of the ongoing renewal process that allows us to be always up to date and to walk at least one step ahead of the competition. Studying and developing new technologies upstream and downstream of the production process – and as a consequence for the finished product as well – is traditionally part of the DNA of our industrial group.”