From its inception nearly 45 years ago, Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group has been driven by three goals: optimise customers’ return on their earthmover tyre investment, help improve mine site productivity and solve customers’ tyre challenges.
Kal Tire’s reputation in the mining industry has grown substantially from supplying and servicing tyres on mine sites worldwide. Thanks to the company’s constant pursuit of tyre management innovation with new technology, tools and processes, the company is also becoming known for developing solutions that drive tyre performance and safety.
One such solution is Kal Tire’s exclusive and award-winning Ultra Repair™ technology for ultra-class tyres. Ultra Repair™ is a proprietary product and process that replaces steel belts inside ultra-class tyres suffering very large injuries and restores their original strength, integrity and performance at a fraction of the cost of new tyres. Ultra Repair™ was developed and launched in Canada nearly two years ago, and now saves hundreds of tyres from scrap piles in Africa, Europe, Central and South America and Australia.
To help team members do their jobs more safely and efficiently for customers, a number of other projects and tools have been developed, either wholly or in part by Kal Tire:
- A gravity assist system. This is a mechanical arm that enables technicians to weightlessly, precisely and safely manoeuvre tools such as torque guns. Unpowered and controlled entirely by the operator, the gravity assist system reduces pinched fingers, fatigue and strain common when mounting earthmover tyres, particularly ultra-class tyres.
- A service trolley developed to improve operations when using ram mount tools or bead breakers. Two types of trollies have been developed, one for electrical and one for pneumatic functions. To ensure the safety of tyre technicians, the trolley’s functions are operated by remote control, enabling technicians to stand away from the truck area.
- Two ram mounts designed for the CAT 797 and Komatsu 930E have been through performance testing at mine sites in BC and the oil sands in Alberta, Canada. Exclusive to Kal Tire, with patents pending, the ram mount tool was released in spring 2016.
- A tyre deflator tool designed to significantly reduce earthmover tyre deflation time. Normally it would take about 30 minutes to deflate a 63-inch ultra-class tyre; the tyre deflator tool reduces that time to a mere 12 or 15 minutes, decreasing the service time per tyre and improving the overall use of the hauling trucks.
Kal Tire is keen to continue fostering innovation and protecting those ideas and investments with the patent process so the organisation can further demonstrate to customers that it is focused on developing products that drive value and performance.
Kal Tire also believes in offering a solution at every stage of the tyre life cycle, even when tyres are no longer fit for the road. In 2016, Kal Tire partnered with a leader in tyre recycling to give western Canadian mine operators their first opportunity to have scrap tyres (including ultra-class tyres) disposed, shredded and converted into products such as sports field flooring. This new plant, located in northern Alberta, will have the capacity to recycle nearly 6 000 tyres a year.
Chilean mines will soon be able to recycle scrap tyres when Kal Tire opens its first thermal conversion recycling facility. The chambers in the Antofagasta plant, which will one day have the capacity to recycle nearly 20 000 kg of tyres daily, use heat in the absence of oxygen to melt and decompose tyres into reusable steel wire, fuel oil and carbon black – repurposing nearly 100% of the tyre.
When it comes to servicing mining customers, Kal Tire offers a very broad and diverse range of tyre management offerings, from access to premium tyre brands and services to customised solutions based on the needs of the mining operation.
You’ll find Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group team members on nearly 150 mine sites across five continents and in some of the most remote areas – from 14 000-ft-high shifts in the Andes to the scorching red earth of the Pilbara. Kal Tire operates on surface and underground mine sites and with every kind of commodity, from oil operations and coal mines to diamonds and all types of metal mines.
The company has been operating in Africa since 2009 with experience servicing mine sites in South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mali, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
More than 1 800 team members are trained to a global standard to ensure quality and safety on every site. With highly qualified technicians, key performance indicators established with the customer and a suite of data collection, analysis and reporting, Kal Tire focuses on results and opportunities to safely minimise tyre life cycle costs.
Of course, at the core of every solution and service is the safety of team members and mine workers. Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group has worked hard to build safe work practices and invest in the training, tools and equipment needed for team members to work safely. Today, with a culture of safety and a commitment to achieving zero harm, team members are engaged in recognising and eliminating hazards, as well as keeping safety top of mind, even after they leave the pits or the shop.
Kal Tire’s comprehensive and safety-focused approach means supplying customers with a broad range of comprehensive tyre management services, the best tyre brands, and the global expertise and resources to be true partners for mine operators everywhere. Learn more at www.kaltiremining.com.