In recent times, Guangdong Greatoo Molds Inc., the only tire mold maker listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchance, has increased its reach far beyond its native China.
After expanding in India, where Greatoo has gained supply agreements with virtually all the leading tiremakers – including Apollo, Birla, Ceat, JK Tyre, MRF and BKT – this fast growing company is now aiming to become a truly global player after gaining some key contracts in Europe.
Speaking to senior technical consultant R.N.K. Krishan at November’s Reifen China show in Shanghai, Tyres & Accessories learned that increased outsourcing amongst the world’s top 10 tiremakers has led the company to build “good ties” with the majority of European tiremakers including Michelin, Continental, Pirelli and Marangoni.
Greatoo’s global appeal has increased since gaining ISO9001-2001 International Quality Certification, with company representatives describing the company’s current products as “the gold standard.”
What is different about Greatoo is the fact that, unlike some competitors, the company offers three kinds of mold manufacturing – CNC direct engraving, aluminium precision casting and electric discharge machine (EDM) technology. The latter was obtained from aluminium casting experts at German firm AZ Mould. As a result, the company reports it is now capable of producing “high quality aluminium molds including winter molds.”
Greatoo are also said to be “adopting newer technologies to reduce the number of parts in segmented molds for optimising mould weight and cost and thus helping the customer shorten the curing time by better heat transfer mechanism.” One of the first results of this endeavour is the company’s most recent product – a segmented 40.00R57 radial OTR mold, which Krishnan describes as: “a testimony to its technological excellence…customers are very happy with its mold performance.” Ventless molds, using puzzle mold techniques for a better finish are also on this list of company achievements.
Greatoo operates from a huge 240,000-square-meter campus in the Jiedong Economic Development and Experimental Area, where 200 engineers produce more than 3,600 sets of moulds and containers. Molds are exported to companies in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Moving forward, company representatives report that Greatoo is aiming to support its continued drive to a “top league” position with further investment in newer seven-axis CNC engraving machines from Japan for direct engraving of large size tread segments, particularly OTR molds. The aim here is to achieve even better levels of accuracy, finish quality and speed and thereby offer a more increasingly attractive service proposition to potential manufacturing customers. (Tyres & Accessories)
