Our View: Custom mixers bury myth of rubber as dirty, low tech

Historically, rubber mixing operations were one of the big reasons why the rubber and tire sector was seen as a "dirty" business.

Featuring chemicals and carbon black combined with elastomers and a whole host of other materials, the compounding area wasn't the place to be if you were wearing a white dress shirt.

But over time, that stereotype has become outdated. Mixers have invested in more advanced technology, with a focus on upgraded IT, automation and, increasingly, into artificial intelligence.

Evidence of this can be seen by looking at how the two largest custom mixers in North America are spending their cap-ex and research and development dollars. At Hexpol Compounding Americas and AirBoss of America Corp., IT budgets are growing, while manufacturing and equipment budgets are dropping.

For Hexpol, the acronyms to watch going forward, rather than M&E, now will be ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems).

The top North American and global custom mixer over the years points to mergers and acquisitions as the impetus for a good part of company growth.

But that also has brought Hexpol to the point where it has 16 mixing sites in North America, and multiple, disparate ERP and MES systems.

That being the case, Hexpol is taking a step toward harmonization and standardization across all of its sites, a move that won't necessarily yield a clear-cut ROI on a balance sheet, but nonetheless yields substantial benefits for customers.

As HCA President and CEO Gary Moore put it: "Visibility and transparency across 16 entities will be much greater with a single ERP system than the eight systems we have today."
Automation is an area that helps mixers in multiple ways. It makes operations less labor-intensive, which is a benefit in an environment where hiring workers remains a difficult proposition.

Automation adds safety and efficiency, producing better quality compounds.

It also takes away much of the potential for human errors in the mixing process. AirBoss President and co-CEO Chris Bitsakakis said his firm is adding automation that can minimize the variability in weighing ingredients in chemicals that are introduced into a batch of rubber.

The Canadian-based firm also has been utilizing AI systems as a way to control a lot of its machines that provide timely data generation and bring the opportunity to generate decisions and changes based on the data coming in.

AirBoss also is looking at ways to use AI and the experience of its R&D staff together in its product development process. With an advanced R&D lab, the rubber firm has developed thousands of proprietary formulations, and has a database that tracks what every compound does.

When trying to solve a customer problem, Bitsakakis said the firm uses AI to come up with the profile of a standard formulation that may fit the bill. Chemists then step in to fine-tune the compound so the mix works properly in the real world.
And this is hardly the type of work you'd find in a "dirty" industry with outdated technology. Today's compounding world is further evidence that it is past time to put that stereotype to rest.