Every year, mine sites around the world send hundreds of ultra-class tyres with large injuries to the scrap pile. Now, they don’t have to.  Kal Tire’s Ultra Repair™ technology provides like-new performance in even the most challenging environments, including Australia.

Near the heart of the Hunter Valley coalfields in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, tyre technicians are busy repairing injuries once thought impossible to fix on some of mining’s biggest tyres.

This Kal Tire repair facility, and its counterpart in Kewdale, Perth, carry out standard repairs using conventional methods, and they’re both leading practitioners of Ultra Repair™—an innovation that uses a stronger cable replacement patch and unique installation technology to extend the life of mining tyres by potentially thousands of hours.

Once this exclusive product and process was ready for the market, it didn’t take long for Ultra Repair™ to make its way to Australia and other countries around the world where Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group has a presence. Developing the game-changing technology in the first place, however, took an enormous investment in resources and time.

Nearly 15 years ago, in the centre of the coal mine industry in BC, Canada, Kal Tire recognised the limitations of traditional earthmover tyre repairs, and began researching a process that could do more—and solve one of a mine operator’s most expensive tyre problems.

“We wanted to develop the materials and the procedure to perform larger and stronger repairs,” says Darren Flint, managing director, Kal Tire Australia. He is also responsible for overseeing the retreading and repair operations for Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group. “Today, that means we have the capability to repair not only large injuries, but also those located in areas that were previously impossible to repair.” In 2014, Kal Tire launched Ultra Repair™.

Where traditional patches for ultra-class tyres risked bulging, lasted just a short time and only suited smaller injuries and certain locations, like the tread—Ultra Repair™ expanded possibilities and ticked every box.
Kal Tire’s exclusive technology and process is effective on large injuries and across the tyre, including the shoulder or sidewall near the bead. Even more, Ultra Repair™ restores an ultra-class tyre’s original strength and integrity, giving it like-new performance, even in extreme conditions.

“There’s an inherent energy stored in tyres, and in repairing ultra-class tyres in particular, we needed to be confident we had safe and critical control of that stored energy,” says Flint.

After exposing and assessing the injury on a 63-inch tyre, for example, (though even 25-inch tyres with large injuries are suited to Ultra Repair™) technicians determine the patch size and compounded needed. Ultra Repair™ patches are constructed with steel cables and a specific rubber compound to match those of the tyre being repaired. The patch is then installed, vulcanised, trimmed to specifications, quality-checked against the Ultra Repair™ standard, and then released for service.
 
“For our customers, what to do with scrap piles of ultra-class tyres has been a major expensive concern, for a long time,” says Flint. “We’re telling customers, ‘Now you can send a 63-inch dump truck tyre with large injuries almost anywhere on the tyre back into production at its maximum performance, rather than sending it to the scrap pile.’”

The savings are significant. “Customers save thousands of dollars per tyre because we’re deferring very expensive new tyre purchases, and yet customers get tyres with like-new performance, so productivity is still strong. They’re reclaiming tyre life and their investment.”

With less need for the handling and logistics of ordering new tyres, it’s also faster and easier on customers. Additionally, Ultra Repair™ reduces a site’s volume of scrap tyres to diminish the environmental impact of operational waste.

After its success in Canada, Kal Tire brought Ultra Repair™ to customers in the UK, Africa, Chile, Colombia, and now Australia. Today there are 12 repair centres around the world, and at each, Ultra Repair™ technicians move through three levels of certification with on-site training.

The Perth facility is nearly seven years old and the New South Wales facility has officially been in operation for almost two years. Since the introduction of Ultra Repair™, both facilities have been busy with the service, and Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group is investing in more equipment to further increase capacity. “It’s been exciting to see how this product and process has made such a difference for our customers, and we look forward to bringing it to customers everywhere in time.”