Rodolfo Comerio boosting calender technology for tire industry

SOLBIATE OLONA, Italy—Throughout its history, the tire industry has been a conservative sector, being slow to welcome change to its operations.

But that may be changing, according to one of the world's leading calender makers.

"In the last five years, we've made a lot of improvements, a lot of innovations, a lot of patents. All the (tire industry) customers are now appreciating that," Nicola Fedele, Rodolfo Comerio S.R.L.'s international sales and marketing manager, told Rubber News. "The tire industry is getting the benefit in their production, because all of our innovations are to improve the production, the quality of the material produced, the safety of the machine and reduce the staff needed to operate a machine."

The priority in recent years for the research and development department at the Solbiate Olona-base machinery firm, in fact, has been to design and patent specific technical solutions for the tire sectors, particularly through increased automation in the calendering process.

During that time, Rodolfo Comerio has patented and brought into service a number of different technologies now in use by tire manufacturers. They range from textile cord unwinders with automatic threading, to systems that reduce the risk of rolls collision in case of missing rubber into the calender bank feeding. Others have included polyethylene unwinders with automatic threading and winders with extractable carriages that are adaptable to AGV systems.

Earlier this year, though, it was another technological breakthrough that put Rodolfo Comerio into the spotlight. Its patented RC Calendar Quick-Change System was honored as the "Tire Manufacturing Innovation of the Year." The firm was one of the top winners at the Tire Technology International Awards for Innovation and Excellence, given out at the annual Tire Technology Exhibition in Hanover, Germany.

Fedele said the firm was the first calendering line producer to receive the coveted title.

"This patent's aim is to perform the production change in the shortest possible time, making a configuration change at material inlet into the calender, in order to pass from the textile cord production to the steel cord one and vice versa," he said. "The calendering line has been designed and manufactured to allow the textile and steel cord to have a quick and automatic change with also the insertion and change of grooved rolls for steel cord end-count."

Rodolfo Comerio staff designed the technology so that everything is in place for the calendering process to move seamlessly. For example, the new line was made to have quickly available, in front of calender roll 3, the textile laminating roll to laminate the fabric, and then the two end-count rolls to laminate the steel cord, according to the company.

The calender also has been designed and manufactured with the first end-count roll assembled on levers that place it in working position by means of a pneumatic device. The second end-count roll for steel cord and the accompanying roll of the fabric are fixed on a rotating supporting unit that allows them to be placed alternately in working position.

Benefits of the award-winning, quick-change technology include a 50-60 percent reduction in time for end-count roll change; in machine downtime for new setups; of the staff used for the operations of end-count roll change and joint operations; and in time for line setup for production changes.

Besides an increase in production quality standards, the Italian firm said its customers also will see a 50-percent increase in productivity and an exponential improvement in safety standards according to European Community regulations.

And rather than being a new technology that works well in the lab or a pilot plant but never makes it to the shop floor, Fedele said Rodolfo Comerio already has the RC Calendar Quick-Change System in use at tire factories in Serbia, Turkey and India.

The innovation was under development for about two years, he added, and the calender maker had a valuable assist with this work from Black Donuts Inc., a Finnish firm that focuses—among other things—on helping major tire manufacturers optimize production processes. It started with Rodolfo Comerio's preliminary design, and then Black Donuts used its expertise to make the end product more economic and comfortable for the operator.

Fedele said this type of collaboration is vital in continuing to help the tire industry move forward.

"It's very important to cooperate," he said. "Every time a customer has an idea, they come to us and we develop it together. Tire manufacturers all need a very strong partner that is able to cooperate with them and is available to receive all the information and transform all their ideas into a concrete innovation."

The calender lines are vital to tire production, according to Fedele, who said that, in many ways, they are the "heart of the tire manufacturing."

The calender helps prepare the semi-finished product and is used to prepare materials to make the carcass, belt and the inner liner. It also aids in the preparation of rubber sheets, rubberized fabric and rubberized steel cord.

And thus far, the feedback from customers on the quick-change development has been positive.

"All the companies are satisfied with the technology, so we are promoting it all around the world," Fedele said.

He added that Rodolfo Comerio's new design not only can be used in new tire factories, but can help retrofit existing plants or assist a brownfield operation in replacing its whole calender systems.

"Around the world, the age of some equipment is very old. Many in the U.S. have found plants with very old machinery," he said. "So they need to renew (operations) to be on the same level of European and Chinese manufacturers, because the Chinese continue to invest."

When Rodolfo Comerio was exhibiting earlier this year at the International Tire Exhibition & Conference in Akron, Fedele told Rubber News that sales of calendering lines into the tire industry have been strong in 2023-24, and the firm already has projects lined up for 2025.

He noted that business in China has been especially strong, with his firm recently selling six calendering lines into China.

"The Chinese market wants to really improve the skill and improve the quality," Fedele said. "The United States needs to improve themselves in order to not lose their market share. The Chinese are coming back very strong.

"There was a period in which the Chinese market was very down. For three to four years they didn't buy new equipment. But now they will buy three to four lines at a time."

Fedele said the Chinese market, particularly, was down during the early parts of the COVID-19 pandemic. They lost market share, but now they want to recover that along with boosting quality. On a recent visit to China, he said he found a country not only looking to improve the quality of their production, but also the quality of life for its citizens.

India is another nation where he said tire manufacturers are growing steadily, though not at the same pace as China.

In addition, Rodolfo Comerio has made some good progress in Europe, with an increasing number of requests likely to lead to new projects down the road.

Fedele added that in North America, his company not only has projects moving along for tire and rubber facilities, but several projects in the PVC industry as well.