HOW TO CHOOSE RELIABLE RETREADS

In this article, the managing director of a British tyre company puts the retreaders' viewpoint. He is disappointed at finding a declining confidence in retreaded tyres; some operators have chosen to use new tyres at any expense, to overcome their problems with retreaded tyres. He found that these operators had usually thought that all retreaded tyres have the same quality, whereas there are over 120 retreading companies in the UK, whose quality ranges from very good to dubious. There is also a wide and confusing variety of retreaded tyres on the market. Unfortunately, the relevant British standards - BS 5750 for general quality management and BSAU 144b for retreads - only provide very limited help to operators wishing to select retreaders wisely. The author advocates a requirement to mark a tyre with the number of times that it has been retreaded. Casing quality is the most important single item in a safe policy; the biggest single reason for failures of retreaded tyres results from processing treads on inadequate casings. There are at present two types of retreading process: (1) precure cap; (2) conventional remould. The three key components are casings, rubber compounds, and tread pattern. The author specifies tests that will show which retreads are cost- effective and enable a really economical tyre policy to be adopted.