0244
- Industry General Industry
- Problem Rubber repair, Flexible Rubber, and Heavy traffic
- Country United States
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Project Goal
To repair tire sidewall in short period cost effectively
- Products Used FLEXICLAD ER
- Status Completed
This front end loader is used to scoop up barite (barium ore) which is ground and made into oil drilling mud. The tires are exposed to a extremely harsh environment that often causes damage to their sidewalls.
As shown here, the tire damage is substantial. The cost to replace this tire is $8,000 ($5,400 used), plus labor. Downtime for this loader can cost as much as $100,000.00 per day. The barium crushing plant’s engineers decided to give the ENECON FLEXICLAD ER a try.
To prepare the surface a full scoop of barite (18,000 lbs) was lifted in the loader’s bucket and the damaged area of the tire was rolled to the 6 o’clock position to help force open the damaged area. The loose pieces of rubber were cut away. A reverse bevel (dovetail) was cut into the rubber. Finally, using a roughtening brush, the area was prepared and then cleaned with solvent.
Once prepared, polyethylene sheeting was taped on the bottom of the tire to keep sand and other debris out of the repair. Two units of FLEXICLAD ER were then mixed and applied to the damaged area.
This repair saved the plant many thousands of dollars in replacement tire costs as well as expensive downtime.
Project Images
