The high costs of the curing process have led manufacturers to maintain large buffer stocks of green tires, but now new technology from Cimcorp offers 100% utilization of the curing presses, allowing dramatic reductions in green tire stockholding.

Cimcorp has developed innovative handling systems and software to optimize the material flows in tire manufacturing facilities. The company’s most recent achievement is the automatic loading of the curing presses, which represents the final hurdle in Cimcorp’s long-held objective of creating a ''dream factory'', a tire plant where all processes are fully automated.

Traditionally a difficult manual task, press loading required the storage of green tires in carts – along with special transfer equipment – close to the press line, resulting in congestion and potential hazards. Cimcorp has developed two automated solutions for this task: linear transfer robots, which load the green tires directly onto the curing press table, and an electric monorail system which transports the tires to transfer equipment that loads them onto the press.

GTP Control

The automatic loading systems represent a significant efficiency improvement, but the real key to the 100% utilization rate and reduced green tire buffer is the software: Cimcorp’s GTP Control (Green Tire Process Control) is a revolutionary production control solution that manages the lot sizes of the building machines, controls the green tire buffer and optimizes the material flow between the building and curing lines. GTP Control ensures that the green tire buffer inventory is maintained at the optimum level: the presses always have sufficient green tires for curing, without an unnecessarily large buffer stock.

Clear benefits

The advantages of GTP Control combined with automatic curing press loading are significant:

• Space savings – whether the green tire buffer storage is floor-based, mezzanine-based or miniload-based, the reduced stockholding and overhead gantry design of the robots combine to save floor space, which can be used for production
• Reduced WIP – optimizing the lot sizes of the building machines and reducing the green tire buffer mean reduced Work In Process
• 100% curing press utilization – streamlined processes, total control of the material flows and automatic press loading combine to ensure maximum press utilization
• Improved curing press access – overhead robotic solutions mean there is no need for green tire transport or transfer equipment in the press area, improving access to the press line and simplifying maintenance

…which all add up to lower operating costs.

Do you want to increase efficiency in the curing press area? Please don't hesitate to contact our sales personnel.