It's a Team's Life
Retreads Tour
We arrived at MFR Tire Services Inc. in Saint Louis, MO and were met by Jerry Robinson, plant manager who has been at this plant for eighteen years. Jerry first gave us a short synopsis of the plant and the process of retreading before we continued on through the plant.
We started in the area where the tires are received and processed. The tires are gone over inside and out looking for any foreign objects and also holes. The tires are marked and sent on to the next station where some tires are sent through the shearography machine. We learned that this machine is a high tech x-ray machine for tires.
The tires are sent to a booth that smoothes the tire out and put the tire back to perfectly round. A tire that has been retreaded will not be out of round as some new tires are.
The next station is where the debris is removed from the tires and the rough spots are ground out. If the tire is in need of a patch the tire is sent there or if the tire does not need a patch it is sent to the next area. At the next station the indentations are filled with a rubber compound and then smoothed back flat.
The next station is where the retread is applied to the casing which was very interesting. One of the workers showed us how the splice is done to seal the retread. Next the tire was off to be baked which is not a quick process. The tires were placed inside of an envelope that is sealed and had a vacuum put on the tire and envelope. The tires are then placed into the oven and monitored to make sure the vacuum does not leak. Once the oven reaches temperature the tires are baked at 425 degrees for four hours and twenty minutes. After the tires come out of the oven the envelope is removed and the tires are painted and they are ready to be returned to their owners.
Jerry was an informative tour guide and we were mesmerized by the work that is put into a retread and the care that is taken to produce a quality product. We met with one of the owners who discussed the different tires they retread and the business side or retreading. We decided to retread our pusher axle tires at a much reduced price than what it would cost to buy new tires.
We discussed retreading our wide based singles and found out that about fifty percent of the wide base single casings cannot pass the initial tests. The wide base singles have a lot of flexing on the sidewalls of the tires and are often not good candidates for retreading.
For more information on retreads and very interesting facts see this link:
Bob & Linda Caffee
Leased to: FedEx Custom Critical
TeamCaffee
Saint Louis MO
Expediters 5 years been out here on the road ten years
[email protected]
Expediting isn't just trucking, it's a lifestyle;
Expediting isn't just a lifestyle, it's an adventure;
Expediting isn't just an adventure, it's a job;
Expediting isn't just a job, it's a business.