Kal Tire opens OTR tire retread plant in Mexico

CANANEA, Mexico — Kal Tire has opened an OTR tire retread plant in Cananea to supply a number of the open-pit copper mines located in northwest Mexico,

"Retreading is a service we've wanted to bring to Mexico for some time, because we know from experience with our other facilities that retreading extends tire life and reduces the cost of ownership," Pedro Pacheco, vice president operations, Latin America, Kal Tire's Mining Tire Group, said.

"Retreading also reduces the impact on the environment. Our clients see this as an opportunity and look forward to seeing our retread tires in operation."

The new OTR retread plant — Kal Tire's first in Mexico and sixth worldwide — is the Canadian company's first to use a robot for skiving and tread grooving, improving access to custom tread designs to best suit each site's conditions.

The robot technology — designed and developed in collaboration with Marangoni Group's TRM – Tyre Retreading Machinery business — is a pilot program as Kal Tire begins automating retread operations around the world, helping to ensure team members don't have to perform the most strenuous steps.

"The robot will allow us to switch tread patterns without having to switch tools," Mr. Pacheco said. "The work is done efficiently and lets us make the most of the expertise of our people."

Designed to process tire sizes up to 63 inches rim diameter, the 32,300-square-foot plant also includes an automated building machine with "exclusive" contact calender head as well as autoclaves and curing presses as well as the automated tooling head for buffing and grooving, TRM said.

The plant will employ 40 workers who have been in training for nearly a year to achieve their certification as retread technicians, Kal Tire said.

All plant team members are local residents of Cananea, a town of 30,000 located in the state of Sonoro about 60 miles southeast of the U.S.-Mexico border town of Nogales, Mexico. It's located in close proximity to roughly 30% of Mexico's copper mines, Kal said.

Kal said the plant, commissioned Oct. 18, is designed to produce 80 tires per month initially, but capacity can be increased to meet demand.

Dan Allan, senior vice president, Kal Tire's Mining Tire Group, said Kal is "excited to bring this value-added service to this market to help customers keep tires in production. Retreading reduces a tire's operating cost per hour, it reduces new tire purchases and it reduces the impact on the environment."

Kal has been active in Mexico for the past dozen years, he said.

The companies did not disclose information pertaining to the project's cost.

Kal Tire is Canada's largest independent tire dealer and one of North America's largest commercial tire dealers, according to TRM. The client's mining tire group, it added, services more than 150 mining sites worldwide.

Kal Tire's other earthmover tire retreading facilities are located in Vernon, British Columbia; Alfreton, England; Accra, Ghana; and La Negra, Chile.

Trento, Italy-based TRM manufactures machines and production lines for the retreading of passenger car, truck, OTR and aircraft tires.