Dave Garratt Becomes EGEA Treasurer
Dave Garratt was appointed as treasurer of the Brussels based European Garage Equipment Association (EGEA). The news was announced following at the association’s recent General Assembly meeting held in Bologna on the 20 May. Mr Garratt’s appointment is seen as an important step for the industry as it ensures a close and ongoing association with the European market. Dave Garrat, also chief executive of the Garage Equipment Association (GEA) in the UK said: “The EGEA, which is based in Brussels, plays an important role in lobbying and advising the European Commission. This appointment shows that the EGEA value an input from the UK and proves that the GEA is fully committed to supporting its members in Europe.”
Continue ReadingCooper’s New HP Zeon
Cooper Tire has launched its latest high performance tyre the Zeon XTC to the European market. Aimed at a range of vehicles from a Ford Focus to a Jaguar X-type the tyre is designed to offer a quiet, comfortable and confident drive in both wet and dry weather.
Continue ReadingApollo Tyre’s Kerala Plant Crosses 16 Million Unit Mark
(India/Rubber Asia) After almost 30 years of manufacturing, Apollo Tyres’ first production plant has produced more than 16 million units. The factory at Perambra in Kerala, south India, has grown into one of India’s leading tyre manufacturing sites with the capacity to role out 9 billion rupees (£130 million) worth of tyres each year, according to Onkar S Kanwar, chairman and managing director.
Continue ReadingNew Cars Come to India from US Producers
(India/Rubber Asia) There has been a flurry of new car launches in the Indian market thanks to the apparent growth of Indian consumer purchasing power. General Motors, the world’s largest car maker for example, has even come out with a new strategy specific to the Indian market, the main component of which is to launch two new cars every year in the country between 2006 and 2008, local media sources report.
Continue ReadingIndian Truck and Bus Tyre Exports Rise
(India/Rubber Asia) Indian truck and bus tyre exports grew 16 per cent in March 2005 compared with the same time last year (222,527 in March 2004 compared with 258,727 March 2005). The Automotive & Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) figures also show that passenger car tyre exports grew, rising from 98,327 units to 107,559 - a 9 per cent increase. LCV tyre export shipments rose 8 per cent to 118,337 units in March 2005 from 109,272 the previous year. Tractor tyre exports were also significantly higher than the previous year, growing 29 per cent (front), 11 per cent (rear) and 46 per cent (trailer) while OTR tyre shipments jumped 37 per cent. Scooter and motorcycle tyre exports shot up 45 and 44 per cent respectively.
Continue ReadingAlonso Snatches Victory
Fernando Alonso snatched victory from McLaren’s Kimi Raikonnen on the last lap of the European Grand Prix. The Renault driver was able to extend his championship lead to 32 points after the Finnish driver crashed out due to the suspension failure caused by the flatspotting of his front right tyre. Williams’ Nick Heidfeld and Ferrari’s Rubens Barichello joined Alonso on the podium, followed by the Red Bull of David Coulthard, the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher, Renault’s Giancarlo Fisichella and McLaren’s Juan Pablo Montoya. Jarno Trulli filled the last point scoring postion.
Continue ReadingFirestone’s Launches World’s Widest Agricultural Tyre
Firestone has launched what it claims it the world’s widest agricultural tyre. At 1250 millimetres wide, the company reports that the agricultural tyre is a full 200 millimetres wider than the nearest competitor.
Continue ReadingAudit Confirms CV Visitors
The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) has confirmed that 26,843 visitors attended the 2005 combined Commercial Vehicle Show and Automotive Trade Show in April. Demographic data, provided by visitor registration company CTS, shows that those 26,843 visitors had more purchasing power this year than at any previous CV Show and ATS says the SMMT. A detailed breakdown of visitors showed that 72.3 per cent were at owner, director or senior manager level. The SMMT believes that these figures confirm the informal feedback from exhibitors during and after the event, suggesting that visitors and business leads were of a very high quality. Visitors came from across the UK and Ireland, with a further 1,000 from overseas, finding the NEC an ideal place for a business-to-business event of this type. The 2006 CV Show and ATS will be on 25, 26 and 27 April, in halls 1 to 5 of the NEC.
Continue ReadingCar Production Up in April
Provisional output data released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics shows that UK car production rose 10.6 per cent, or 13,689 units, in April. This puts the year-to-date total above the 2004 level for first time this year. Both output for home and export volumes rose by over 10 per cent last month. “Despite problems at Longbridge, todays figures show that the UK still has a strong vehicle manufacturing base”, said SMMT chief executive Christopher Macgowan.
Continue ReadingRedundant Goodyear Workers Lose Out
Thousands of Goodyear workers will lose out on their share of a £1 million repayable sickness fund because they were made redundant reports a Wolverhampton newspaper. Workers who lost their jobs before October 2003 will not be eligible for a £1,150 payout from the Goodyear Relief Society, which has now been dissolved.
Continue ReadingBosch Releases Diagnostic Update
Bosch has released the updated 2005 version of its range of DVD-based technical information, ESI[tronic]. The new version of the company’s software package will provide garage technicians with more technical knowledge for problem solving on a wider range of modern vehicles.
Continue ReadingGoodyear Tyres Take Flight
Goodyear has selected its second aviation tyre evaluation centre, the 43 Air School in Port Alfred, South Africa. It will be Goodyear’s first centre in the Southern Hemisphere. The academy has 40 registered aircraft and an impeccable safety record assures the manufacturer. The new school will do as its forerunner, the Florida centre does, and will evaluate Goodyear and competitor tyres based on their durability and safe landings. The school’s test results will be recorded and used to measure Goodyear’s overall tyre performance.
Continue ReadingAlliance Strengthen Forestry Position
Alliance has introduced 40 new forestry tyre designs to its existing ranges in an attempt to strengthen its position in the segment. The tyres feature reinforced steel and include flotation forestry tyres for harvesters, agro-forestry R1 tyres for combined applications in forestry and agriculture, and LS forestry tyres for logger skidders. The new tyres were developed in co-operation with machinery manufacturers, under severe conditions, said David Shahar, head of R&D for Alliance. “Forestry tyres should be able to drive effortlessly in difficult terrain, without puncture and costly down time,” Shahar explained.
Continue ReadingBekaert Ups External Investment
Bekaert has put in a bid to take over the ECC card clothing division of Carclo, which deals in plastic components and specialist wire products. ECC has facilities in the UK, France, Italy, Turkey, USA, Canada, China and India, and achieves annual sales of €24 million. The value of the acquisition is estimated at €13 million. Carclo and Bekaert are expected to reach an agreement in the coming weeks. The company first invested in this market in 2002 with the acquisition of Sobelcard in Zwevegem, Belgium, which produces half products for card clothing manufacturers.
Continue ReadingProject Exelero – The Legend Lives
Last month saw the official European launch of Fulda’s new Exelero. But it didn’t stop there. The manufacturer not only presented a new UHP tyre to European press and dealers, but also a new car, the Fulda Maybach Exelero. Sales of the Fulda brand reached 9 million pieces in 2004, of which approximately 5 million were sold in Germany and the remainder in other parts of Europe. The factory, based in the German city Fulda, produced 7 million tyres in 2004, but they weren’t all for the Fulda brand. The plant focuses on high end products, including runflats, UHP tyres and products for the SUV sector, it also produces tyres for other Goodyear brands. But back to the much anticipated ‘Fulda Maybach Exelero’ project. Just imagine a vehicle that combines the elegance and quality of a high-end limousine with the powerful agility of a sports coupé. Picture a vehicle with a basic weight of over 2.66 tonnes and the dimensions of a light truck that can achieve a maximum speed of over 350 km/h. Now visualise an ultra-high performance tyre that not only copes with the aforementioned weight, the dimensions and the speed, but also makes the vehicle safe, stable and comfortable. Does such a vehicle and tyre exist? It does now. Other manufacturers develop a tyre for a car, Fulda reversed he norm and developed a car for the tyres. This is a symbol, according to Fulda’s MD Bernd Hoffmann, that his brand is unique from all others – in the market as well as in the Goodyear family. Fulda has been making car tyres for the past 100 years, and has tested and marketed its products on several special vehicles throughout this time. Luxury high-speed buses, a series of show trucks, racing cars, all have been used to test and advertise the manufacturers tyres. In the 1930s the streamlined Maybach SW38 was used. The car could conduct tyre tests at speeds of over 200 km/h. Unfortunately it did not last for long, the test car which was designed in 1938 and produced in 1939 disappeared during the war years and was never seen again. Sixty-six years later Fulda has introduced a high-tech tyre to the market. The most extreme dimension in the tyre’s portfolio is the 315/25 ZR 23, licensed for speeds of more than 350 km/h. As a series tyre, and not a racing tyre, a high-speed vehicle was needed for the launch and not a racing car. Lucky then that one of the most exclusive German vehicle makes was revived a few years ago and a joint project was organised, just like in the old days. The contacts were made thanks to René Staud, a world-class car photographer and an outstanding ‘networker’ at DaimlerChrysler and Fulda Reifen. An agreement was reached following several discussions with Leon Hustinx, Maybach’s director sales and marketing – Maybach would build a car for Fulda. The objective was to position the vehicle as an ambassador for the new ultra high performance tyre line Exelero. The project had quite a team behind it. Two independent design professors and four of their students, together with the design professionals from DaimlerChrysler and Fulda worked on the car. After nine months of design proposals one of the students’ designs was chosen. Transforming a limousine, the Maybach 57 (the basis for the Exelero) into a coupé is an extremely complicated process. When considering the engine alternatives, it soon became clear that the basic twelve-cylinder engine used in the Maybach limousines would not achieve the desired maximum speed of around 350 km/h despite the Biturbo charger. Here, the Mercedes Car Group leapt into the breach. The engine specialists in Untertürkheim, the place where all basic engines are developed, provided some much needed support to the project. After much tweaking of the Maybach type 12 engine, the cubic capacity was increased from 5.6 to 5.9 litres and the turbo charge optimised. The result was convincing: on the test bed almost 700 hp and at least 1,000 newton metres of torque were recorded, sufficient to achieve the maximum target speed of 350 km/h. The final test measurements at the end of April/beginning of May 2005 on the high speed Motodrom Nardo confirmed the team’s hard work and success, the car reached a top speed of 351.45 km/h – a world record for limousines on standard tyres. The development of the project, from the initial Fulda concept to the delivery of the Maybach Exelero sports coupé, in just 25 months also achieved another world record. Delivering to the discerning consumer State-of-the-art technology, comfort, convenience, and all at a good price – the end consumer knows what it wants and is becoming increasingly discerning. And because of this those industries that support the vehicle manufacturers are increasingly being called upon to respond to manufacturing trends towards more capacity, higher horse power and better performance characteristics by providing technically compatible, performance-orientated product components. This includes the tyre industry. Predictions for the ultra high performance tyre segment show a 60 per cent sales increase for V, W and Y speed categories between 2003 and 2008. Fulda’s new Exelero is a prime example of the tyre technology currently being placed in the path of today’s quality-sensitive consumer group. The product is a result of equally intensive and complex research and development claims the manufacturer. The motivation behind such R&D was always to enhance the performance of existing summer tyre products, a goal Fulda believes it has achieved. Refined and perfected for the requirements of sporty drivers, the characteristics of the new Exelero have impressed Germany’s Technical Board of Control (TÜV Süd). The product was awarded the TÜV test symbol following detailed tyre tests and a quality audit of Fulda’s production processes. In doing so the TÜV Süd has, for the first time, recognised the research and development undertaken by a tyre manufacturer on the basis of an independent testing and certification process. The Exelero is also the result of intensive market research. Customer surveys conducted by Fulda Reifen revealed that the majority of motorists want tyres with optimised braking characteristics on wet road surfaces, good handling, and low noise build-up. As a result of this research a special wet grip compound was developed, and its low elasticity improves grip level providing shorter braking distances, especially on wet road surfaces. In principle a tyre tread with low elasticity produces a more effective grip on the road surface than a compound with higher elasticity and the contact between the tyre and road surface is guaranteed for a longer period. In addition, the new high performance carcass offers improved handling, on both dry and wet road surfaces. Developed to meet the requirements of high performance and sports cars, the tyre manufacturer has placed special emphasis on the tyres’ high stability and response behaviour. The carcass is less susceptible to deformation during heavy braking manoeuvres and on sharp bends and thus not only improves the grip but also the vehicle’s steering behaviour. With the newly developed and so-called unique ‘DualShift Method’ the engineers have been able to clearly reduce the Exelero’s noise emissions. The ‘DualShift Method’ consists of two elements; the special configuration of various tread block sizes in the shoulder section and centre leads to an audible reduction in the sound frequency peaks. Six circumferential longitudinal grooves are also individually set, to further improve driving comfort and low noise build-up. Fulda’s new UHP product is currently being rolled out to the trade and will eventually be available in 33 sizes and 39 versions ranging from 15 to 23 inches (55 to 25 series), 25 sizes are already available in the UK. Fulda is putting 13 of the sizes into series production for the first time.
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