Noah Hickman, president of H&H Industries Inc., which is based in Oak Hill, Ohio, says his company has invested in a new OTR tire builder.
The dealership has been working on this investment for over a year – with final installation coming together and training on the new piece of equipment to be held soon.
Hickman explains that a builder is “basically the machine that puts new, uncured rubber onto a buffed casing. Our previous builder was purchased and installed in 2006 and has been a great piece of equipment.
“Over time, the advancements in OTR retreading naturally have grown leaps and bounds. Even though we have a secondary, newer builder that we use daily in conjunction with our primary machine, we felt that it was time to upgrade our older builder with all the bells and whistles that have become available.”
The new builder was bought through Central Marketing and can retread sizes from 1400/24 up to - and including - 53/80R63 and 53.5/85x57.
The new builder has improved computer control panels with easier operation, hydraulic systems for the tire hubs, an improved rubber rope conveyor system to reduce uncured rubber breakage and two lasers for dual control measurements.
“With this new type of builder, our production will increase while eliminating operating errors,” says Hickman.
“This machine has two lasers, which enable it to calculate rubber thickness, width and overall diameter of the retread and make corrections on the fly, all while producing a retread that will give the end users the best cost-per-hour results.
“Naturally, we hope to serve our current partners with the best products possible and are continually looking for ways to expand our operations,” he explains.
Including the newest builder that’s being installed, H&H Industries currently has two computer-controlled strip wind builders.
Hickman says that this is one of the transitions that builders have made over time.
“Over the decades, they’ve transitioned from a fully manual process to where they are today – almost 100% computer controlled with precision rubber application.”
Hickman says the main reason for this new investment is to stay current with new technology in order to offer customers “unparalleled quality and performance in the field.
We also look at methods to help our associates in our manufacturing process, while being able to offer our partners one of the faster turn times in our industry.”
Hickman hopes to run the builder at full capacity starting in early-November.
