Nov 19, 2013

  • Unique combination of facility for hot and cold retreading with rubber recycling
  • Recognized by the Environmental Innovation Program of the German Government
  • ContiLifeCycle Academy to offer on-site trainings for all topics around retreading

Download Press-Release as Word Document

Hannover, November 19, 2013. The international tire manufacturer and automotive supplier Continental held a ribbon cutting ceremony for its ContiLifeCycle Plant in Hannover-Stöcken today. The plant, which is a world's first, integrates a cutting-edge facility for retreading bus and truck tires with a proprietary industry-scale rubber recycling unit. The technology developed by Continental was recognized as an environmental innovation by the German Federal Ministry of Environment.

By producing retreaded tires with product characteristics that are on par with new tires, Continental takes a strategic step and heralds a new era for its LifeCycle business. "When we started this project, our aim was to bring our LifeCycle solution closer to new tire production. Within a timeframe of less than 18 months, we planned and built a plant that not only catered to necessities, but pushed the boundaries of what is possible. We have put all of our knowledge from tire engineering and manufacturing into the ContiLifeCycle Plant and thus reached a new level in terms of product performance and characteristics," remarks Nikolai Setzer, Member of the Executive Board of Continental and Head of Tire Division. These out-standing characteristics were achieved by implementing production techniques from Continental's new tire production as well as refining existing retreading technology.


Nikolai Setzer, Member of the Executive Board of Continental and Head of Tire Division

Based in Hannover-Stöcken, the new retreading factory will have a projected annual capacity of 180,000 retreaded tires once reached full capacity. "For us, the ContiLifeCycle Plant serves as a competence center for our world-wide LifeCycle business. Our unique team of R&D, Manufacturing, Engineering as well as Quality Management departments here in Stöcken develops and improves solutions for our other LifeCycle centers, such as Petaling Jaya - Malaysia, Cuenca - Ecuador, and Morelia - Mexico. Furthermore, we established an on-site training facility, the ContiLifeCycle Academy, in the plant for both internal and external staff on different topics of retreading," remarks Dr. Andreas Esser, Head of the Commercial Vehicle Tires Business Unit at Continental.

As part of the ContiLifeCycle Plant, Continental has also developed a recycling process for the tread powder that arises during retreading. "We put our already cured tread powder through a series of different processing steps, so that we can reverse the curing process. The recycled material is of such high and controlled quality that it can be used for tire compounding without hesitation," remarks Dr. Boris Mergell, Vice President Product Development & Industrialization Commercial Vehicle Tires at Continental. Tread buffings from Continental's new ContiLifeCyle retreading factory will be completely used in the recycling facility. This results in the reduction of waste by more than 80 percent and significant CO2-savings.

"With our ContiRe tires made in Stöcken, we offer our customers a product portfolio that is economically and ecologically sustainable. Environmentally-friendly production techniques and raw material usage in the ContiLifeCyle Plant are complemented by low rolling resistance of our final products and a wide range of service solutions," remarks Christian Sass, Director Retread Business at Continental. All this leads finally to the major objective of the ContiLifeCycle-concept: Lowest overall driving cost for the Fleets.

distributed by