BOULDER CITY, Nev. (Sept. 30, 2005) — Amerityre Corp. said it has begun development of a polyurethane tire compound and manufacturing process for retreading medium commercial truck tires with a polyurethane elastomer tread compound.
The company said the retreading process—which it claims has been successfully developed and tested in passenger car tire applications—“is a natural fit for the medium commercial truck tire used by tens of thousands of over-the-road truck fleets worldwide.” Richard Steinke, Amerityre president and CEO, said “the benefits of polyurethane elastomer as a tire compound are evident. In both endurance and high speed testing our polyurethane compounds have run substantially cooler than rubber. In addition, these compounds have outperformed comparable rubber compounds in both accelerated heat aging and ozone testing.”
All tests have been conducted by an independent laboratory in accordance with applicable FMVSS or ASTM test standards, according to Boulder City-based Amerityre. Its retreading process involves applying the polyurethane tread compound to the rubber tire casing so that the tread locks “seemlessly” to the tire casing without pressure or vulcanization.
Retreading has historically been an effective way for the trucking industry to save money, the company said. “We believe that using our revolutionary retreading process is going to provide additional money-saving advantages to both the trucking and tire retread industry,” Mr. Steinke added.
The retread development is expected to be completed by the end of the year and the company has allocated another three months for industry testing and feedback before looking to market the manufacturing technology directly to the retreading industry, it said.