AKRON-Goodyear is installing high-pressure Matteuzzi testers at its 46 company-owned retread facilities to enhance worker safety and improve product quality. The G-100 model testers will serve as an additional final step in the retread inspection process to ensure a higher quality tire and guard against zipper sidewall failures, said Tom L. Ford III, general manager of retreading systems.
Goodyear said it modified the machines to better identify tire casings that may have suffered pre-existing damage that could lead to tire failures.
``The enclosed system inflates a tire in a three-stage cycle to 30 psi, then to 60 psi and on to 120 psi and allows the machine operator to visually inspect the tire from a protected position,'' Mr. Ford said.
The unit can locate undiscovered nail holes, deformations and out-of-spec repairs and has ``successfully identified tires with the potential for zipper failure,'' he noted.
Zipper failures occur when the steel cords in a radial-ply truck tire weaken and break.
Goodyear expects to have the equipment in all company-owned plants by mid 1997.