| February 15, 2008
Pictured (top left) are a few of the many Titan personnel, led by Ernest J. Rodia, Titan's Executive Vice President and COO, and Daniel Steltmann, Vice President of Research and Development, who helped build the company’s first giant 63-inch radial OTR tire at the Bryan, Ohio, facility. Rodia headed Goodyear's
Global Engineering and Manufacturing Technology team before his
retirement from Goodyear in December 2003 after more than 35 years of service. Titan Tire Builds First Radial 63-inch Tire
QUINCY, Ill.—Titan Tire Corporation of Bryan, a subsidiary of Titan International Inc., has produced the company’s first prototype giant radial 63-inch tire in its Ohio facility. Titan announced its commitment to produce these large radial tires, used in the mining industry, in May 2007.
“This project has been an unbelievable experience for a large group of Titan employees—starting with myself,” said Titan Chairman and CEO Maurice M. Taylor Jr. “I know a lot of people think I’m a little different, and that’s fine, but I’m very lucky to have a great team. Titan has some of the best employees in this business and they proved it today by producing this tire in seven months, starting from scratch. A site that used to be a soybean field is now the beginning of a state-of-the-art giant tire facility. In addition to developing this 63-inch tire, Titan has also filed for a patent on the new construction used in this design that will improve tires and lower cost to manufacture.”
New 63-inch steel belted tires should start shipping in the next 60 to 90 days to select mines. Titan believes these giant OTR tires will out-perform current steel radials because of the patent pending process of Titan’s new steel belted radials. In tests on smaller tire sizes, Titan found tire life could be 20 to 30 percent greater than conventional tires with this new design.
Titan International, Inc. (NYSE: TWI), a holding company, owns subsidiaries that supply wheels, tires and assemblies for off-highway equipment used in agricultural, earthmoving/construction and consumer (including all terrain vehicles) applications.
Contact: Titan Communications (217) 221-4489
