The basic production process is simple: a mixer and a press are the only pieces of equipment you will need if you want to produce moulded goods starting with recycled tire rubber crumb. Once the mix of rubber and binder has been unloaded into the mould and pressed, it needs to rest until the binder has completely cured, which may take up to 24 hours depending on the binder used, product’s thickness, and room temperature. While heat is not necessary for the binder to react, it speeds up the process and allows for a higher output rate.Ī cold process is used when the goods to be manufactured are too thick to allow the heat to evenly spread through the product, reaching its inner part as well.

We speak about a hot process when heat is added during the pressing phase: this usually happens thanks to some electrical heatings and is used in the production of most moulded goods. The production process can be hot or cold. The mix is then unloaded into a press equipped with a mould and subject to constant pressure where it takes the desired shape. A small amount of water is also inserted because the humidity is the real trigger for the binder to start reacting. In case the final product needs to have a color other than black, color may be added to the mix. But how does it work? The recycled rubber crumb is mixed with a polyurethane binder coming in liquid form, which is usually around 8% to 10% of the weight of the rubber granulate. Its maturity together with the relatively low investment level makes it a technology accessible to small companies as well. The technology to produce tire-derived moulded goods has been on the market for more than 20 years and it is thus consolidated. This rubber granulate, also known as rubber crumb, is no longer a waste but a valuable secondary raw material that, thanks to a transformation process, gives tires a new life. In this phase, rubber is separated from a tire’s other components and reduced into granulate. The journey from tires to recycled rubber moulded goods starts with waste: when a tire reaches the end of its life, it needs to be properly disposed of and this often implies going through a shredding process. The world of tire-derived moulded goods is a universe of which we have not come to know the borders yet. Talking with people around me, however, I have realized that there is little awareness of how many new products can be manufactured starting with the rubber coming out of the tire recycling process, and how broad their fields of application can be.

I can’t help but smile every time because I think this is a sort of “professional distortion”: as a professional in the tire recycling business, I tend to see the world through the lenses of my work experience, noticing things that other people do not even see. Everywhere I go, I see objects made of recycled tire rubber.

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