Meeting of two OTR tire giants (Paul Rösler Sen. and Wilhelm Schelkmann)
Wilhelm Schelkmann (94), the inventor of the pre-cure tire renewal process, invited Paul Rösler Sen. (69) to his villa in Mallorca. There, the two friends talked about many things, like how the pre-cure process (especially when used for 63” tires) was evolving under Rösler groups’ guidance. Paul Rösler had a lot of news to share, the renewal facilities completed in Australia, Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Uzbekistan for one, and how they have all successfully managed to keep tires rolling. The worldwide renewal of OTR tires using the SPR-System is the evolution of an idea by Wilhelm Schelkmann: to use vacuums and vulcanization. Wilhelm Schelkmann made 173 patents to secure his place in construction tire history. In the year 1976 he sold these patents for an amazing 20 million D-Mark (that’s 40 million Euro) to Bandag in the USA. With this sale, Schelkmann settled into retirement, but his name remains an important part of the construction tire industry. Bandag urgently needed these patents as they dealt mainly with precure retreads of truck tires and many of their processes were already patented by Schelkmann. This had already led to serious legal consequences for Bandag. In the year 1999 Rösler bought the company “Reifen Schelkmann” from the “Diehl-Gruppe” and constructed the largest OTR cold process machine in the world, which to this day still holds the same title. Every year Rösler renews up to 10,000 OTR tires and is already planning to construct more retreading facilities in Russia, Canada, the Middle East and Chile. Wilhelm Schelkmann was very excited to hear that his patented retreading process had evolved so successfully and that his name had become a trademark for quality retreads.
The next meeting of these two construction tire giants has already been set: the 13th of March 2011 to celebrate Wilhelm Schelkmann's 95th birthday.
