Special report: Manufacturing Technology – Machine Reasoning

As tire manufacturers strive to increase the efficiency and sustainability of their production processes, automation will be key to bringing facilities into the modern age.

As Industry 4.0 continues to gain purchase in multiple sectors around the world, tire manufacturers and suppliers are exploring ways to improve production capacity and sustainability by implementing an array of connected technologies. By utilizing smart technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and analytics software, tire makers are overhauling their manufacturing techniques, product-handling processes and distribution operations.

“Tire manufacturers are more focused on automation in the whole process chain,” says Gerlof Korte, vice president of research and development at VMI Group. “If you look at a tire plant, you have the mixing room, component preparation, tire building, curing and a final uniformity check. We are seeing a focus on the reduction of the number of activities in component preparation and manufacturers are trying to merge more component preparation into tire building.”

By Korte’s estimations, labor makes up around…

Source: TTi