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December 2014 www.coalage.com 49 A Major Investment for the Americas This is the biggest single investment that Bridgestone has ever made in manufactur- ing in the U.S., Garfield explained. "Within the walls of the 1.5 million sq ft facility, we will produce many of the world's largest tires — massive off-road radial tires to keep the mining industry on the move," Garfield said. "This plant will help keep Bridgestone front and center in this important market segment throughout the Americas. By installing Bridgestone's state-of-the-art off- road radial production technologies here in Aiken, we will be able to respond more quickly and dependably to customer needs throughout the Americas." It will also strengthen Bridgestone's rela- tionship with South Carolina. When the company made the announcement in 2011, the plans for the new plant and the expan- sion of the existing passenger tire plant amounted to the single largest capital invest- ment in South Carolina's history. "We are creating every one of the 856 jobs that we said we would three years ago," Garfield said. Currently, nearly 2,000 people are employed at the two Aiken plants. The Giant Tire Manufacturing Process Manufacturing mining class tires, which can reach a height of 13 ft high and weigh as much as 13,000 lb, is a complex process. During the first step of the tire manufactur- ing process, the raw materials are mixed. The various types of rubber and other raw materials that will go into the tire are care- fully measured and mixed together in a pow- erful, three-floor Banbury mixer. More than 30 different components are used to make an off-road radial tire. Next, each part of the tire required for assembly is created. The compound from the mixing process is extruded through a die to produce the desired profile for dif- ferent components. Some of the mixed rubber is flattened, cooled and cut into different lengths for varying tire sizes. This becomes the sidewall and other parts of the tire. The calendering process aligns hundreds of steel cords and binds them to the rubber, creating sheets of reinforced rubber for vari- ous components of the tire, including the belts and body ply. Steel wire is coated with rubber and then wrapped into a circular shape to create the bead, which is the part of the tire that connects to the wheel. Those components are assembled to cre- ate a green tire (uncured). The tire is cured through a vulcanizing process using pres- sure and heat over time to cook the tire into the final shape. A bladder inflates the green tire and presses it against the mold at a pre- cise temperature for a specific length of time to create the finished product. The Aiken plant currently has four kilns that can accommodate several molds each. The last step in the manufacturing pro- cess is the final inspection. The tires also pass through X-ray and ultrasound tests, as well as physical inspection by technicians, who use their hands, eyes and expertise to make sure every tire is top notch. Only after each tire passes all of Bridgestone's quality inspections will it be released and sent to the customer. A tire gets rejected less than 10% of the time. It depends on the abnormality, but the majority of the time tires are rejected for a surface blemish or something on the outside that is appearance related. Many times the technicians can buff and rework the outside of the tire. If an internal abnor- mality is detected through the X-ray or ultrasound process, the tire is scrapped and recycled. Bridgestone flew key technicians to Japan to be formally trained on the man- ufacturing process for ultra-class mining tires and they brought those skills back to the Aiken plant. A Commitment for the Mining Business Bridgestone has two mining-class tire plants in Japan. Importing these giant tires into the U.S. through West Coast ports can some- times be problematic. That will no longer be the case for Bridgestone. "One of our great assets as an organi- zation is the ability to leverage resources around the world," said Kurt Danielson, president of U.S. and Canada commercial tire sales, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations. "Having tires produced and shipped domestically allows us to get the product to the mines much more quickly." While he declined to give exact figures relating to the new plant's production capacity for competitive reasons, Danielson explained that the capacity is certainly enough to satisfy the current demand throughout the Americas. The company's Kitakyushu plant in Japan manufactures large mining tires and it's a fairly new facility, Danielson explained. "The Aiken facility is a larger plant and it also has some new features from a manufacturing technology stand- point. As we build plants we learn and incorporate more technology." Explaining why Bridgestone would make such a significant investment here and dur- ing a soft period for the mining business, Danielson explained that Bridgestone shares a long-term vision with the mining business. "The mining business is cyclic and the min- ing business in the U.S. is a significant mar- ket for Bridgestone," Danielson said. "Domestically, the South Carolina location makes a lot of sense. We already had a pres- ence here, so the skill sets exist. And, logisti- cally we have the ability to easily import natural resources and export product." s u p p l i e r s n e w s c o n t i n u e d A technician performs a visual inspection at the new Aiken tire plant.