Kal Tire Opens Highly Automated OTR Retread Plant

Dec. 4, 2019

Kal Tire's new OTR tire retreading plant in Cananea, Mexico, is the company's sixth OTR tire retreading and repair facility.

The plant is strategically located as 30% of Mexico's mines are located in Sonora, the state where Cananea is situated, according to Kal Tire officials.

It is Kal Tire's first retread facility to use a robot for skiving and tread grooving, which improves "access to custom tread designs to best suit each site's conditions. The robot technology - a pilot program as Kal Tire begins automated retread operations around the world - also helps ensure team members don't have to perform the most strenuous steps" of the retreading process, they note.

"The robot will allow us to switch tread patterns without having to switch tools," says Pedro Pacheco, vice president of operations, Latin America, Kal Tire's Mining Tire Group.

The 3,000-square-meter plant will retread an average of 80 OTR tires per month.