Mt. Morris Tire Center retreads truck tires for Oliver Rubber Co., a Michelin company, as part of its contract with the U.S. Postal Service covering New York, Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It uses compressed air at nearly every stage of the process.
The device that presses the tires into the retreading mold frequently tested the limits of the company’s four aging screw compressors, some of which were as large as 50 HP.
“If you don’t have the proper pressure, you’re not going to get a good adhesion,” Mike Holbert, company president, said. “Then your tire is going to fly apart.”
At least two compressors had to be operating at the same time to generate the required air pressure. Unfortunately, the units kept breaking down, and the company had to wait weeks for replacement parts. So, keeping two units operating was a juggling act.
“If one of them breaks down, we can’t make enough air,” Mike said. Balancing breakdowns, long lead times on parts and customer deadlines meant he had a lot of balls in the air at one time.
Mt. Morris Tire Center needed a robust, reliable alternative and asked its long-time partner, Diversified Air Systems, an independent Kaishan distributor in Oakdale, PA, to research a solution.
George Mott, Diversified’s salesperson, recommended two 50-HP Kaishan KRSB belt-drive rotary screw air compressors working in tandem to supply the required pressure. Having been burned by his difficulty getting parts for his older machines, the fact that Kaishan stocks all replacement parts at its Alabama plant helped seal the deal, Mike said.
That’s a stark contrast from his previous setup, which could not reach the required pressure unless two units were operating. Even though they were the same size as the new Kaishans.
Mike said that’s important because “I’m not a compressor person, I’m a tire person. So, you have to put your trust in the people you’re dealing with. If you don’t have trust, it’s a sad world.”
“I didn’t ask anybody else. I didn’t shop anywhere, didn’t ask anybody who would have even had the compressors. I just put my faith in him and said, let’s do it.”
— Mike Holbert, President, Mt. Morris Tire Center
SIZE AND SCALE
compressors are
manufactured every year