K_wide technology revolutionises cold retreading

Think Wide! KRAIBURG Austria presents an innovative process which brings the performance of cold retreads into the league of premium hot retreads

“Think Wide” is the slogan adopted by KRAIBURG Austria for this year’s “Reifen” tyre trade fair in Essen, where it will be unveiling its revolutionary process for premium cold retreads for the first time. The new K_wide technology is innovative, both in terms of the material and the method, and eliminates one of the major restrictions in the cold retreading process, namely the different tread widths in one tyre size. As such, the K_wide technology is elevating cold retreads to the performance class of premium hot retreads.

The tread width of a cold retread used to vary by up to 40 millimetres depending on the buffing width of the original casing. The retreader had to manage with up to four different tread widths for one tyre size, such as 315/80 R 22.5. Consequently the customer rarely ended up with the optimum uniform tread width for a set of tyres. K_wide technology has now put paid to this less than ideal situation, deploying as it does a modified VMI-AZ CTC extrusion system with special wing formers and a special rubber compound. The process works without an additional step. Only one single specially developed material is needed to meet the specifications demanded of the existing cushion gum (good tack, good flow, low vulcanisation tem¬perature/time) and those demanded of the shoulder enlargement (high rigidity, higher Shore hardness, better resistance to ageing and good extrusion properties). A K-wide upgrade kit for CTC extrusion systems is available for all the machines currently on the market and, given its affordable price, it is unlikely to break the investment budget.

K_side enables premium bead-to-bead retreading
The retreading specia¬lists at KRAIBURG have also developed a new and highly flexible matrix for sidewall renewal in the cold retreading process. This can be used as complement the new K_wide technology but also independently. K_side enables premium bead-to-bead retreading. Cold retreads can, at long last, also enjoy the privileges once reserved for hot retreads. Retreaders can add cosmetic enhancement and customise the sidewall to individual requirements or to proprietary brand specifications - with or without additional sidewall protection.

K_wide: more mileage, improved traction, better looks
Cold retreads produced with K-wide technology bring many benefits for the end consumer, one example being an increase in mileage of between 10 and 15 percent with road tyres. They have better traction properties – due to the higher number of traction edges or ribs in the surface contact areas. And good looks are guaranteed – a welcome additional benefit, especially in countries like France, Spain and Portugal where the interpretation of the law is not so broad in terms of the tyre fitting requirements per axle.

“The majority of HGV retreads in the world are cold retreads, and the process is very popular due to the low input temperature, for example, and the flexibility in terms of tyre types, tyre sizes and profile types. The complexity of the process and investment costs have also been kept to a manageable scale“, said Thorsten Schmidt, Vice President of KRAIBURG Austria, “but now that we have developed our new K_wide technology, we can tackle the big disadvantage of the limitations in terms of tread width and have come up with an optimum solution with little capital outlay which we can offer our business partners, the medium-sized retreading firms.” Think Wide - the slogan of the KRAIBURG family is indicative of the revolutionary cold retreading technology and is also a symbolic invitation to its business partners to break the mould and tread new paths with the retread specialist KRAIBURG.