With an ever-increasing focus on the sustainability of its business operations, Hankook has revealed its new Alphatread hot-retreading factory in Hammelburg, Germany.
The retreading business for commercial vehicle tires makes an important contribution to the company’s sustainability efforts. The new facility was set up due to increased demand following a series of multi-million-dollar investments by the tire maker.
The hot-retreading production area is situated on a 2,000m2 plot that makes up part of the 15,000m2 facility. Hankook says the total area can be increased to 20,000m2 if required, enabling long-term plans to be made for the Hammelburg site.
Since taking over Reifen Müller in 2018, Hankook has continued to focus on factory retreading under the Alphatread brand name for the commercial vehicle side of its business.
“With the completion of the new plant, we can meet the increased demand for hot-retreaded tires,” said Manfred Zoni, TBR sales director at Hankook Reifen Deutschland. “Compared to the old factory we have been able to almost double our production capacity. We can now produce up to 100,000 hot-retreaded tires each year. Alongside state-of-the-art technology, the decision to exclusively use A-carcasses helps to make Hankook Alphatread profiles the highest quality.”
“Hankook recognizes the ever-increasing challenges of our fleet and dealer partners across Europe,” added Guy Heywood, vice president of truck and bus tire marketing at Hankook Tire Europe. “To deliver more cost-effective, safe and environmentally friendly solutions, we are investing in our retread range and production facilities. We aim to offer more dimensions and to focus with our fleet partners on extracting all of the value Hankook builds into our Premium new truck tires.”
Hankook and Reifen Müller revealed the new production facilities to guests at the beginning of June 2022. Manfred Zoni, Guy Heywood and Uwe Müller, the managing director of Reifen Müller Runderneuerungswerke, led a tour that demonstrated the production site’s manufacturing processes, the Hankook SmartLife Solutions concept and other benefits of hot-retreading. This included showing how every Hankook commercial tire can not only be regrooved but also retreaded several times because of 5-9mm of base rubber beneath the tread.
