News

11th July 2018
Tyre sealant specialist Air-Seal Products gets a Twitter Boost from Theo Paphitis

 

 

 

 

A Wellington based firm has received a business boost from Retail Entrepreneur Theo Paphitis.   Last week, Air-Seal Products, tweeted Theo about their business during ‘Small Business Sunday’ and was one of six weekly winners to gain a retweet by Theo to his 500,000 Twitter followers.  The weekly initiative, set up by Theo in 2010, now has over 2200 #SBS winners and supports small businesses in the UK.

Business and retail entrepreneur and self-confessed Shopkeeper, Theo re‐tweeted Air-Seal Products message to his almost 500,000 followers and as a result, Air-Seal Products has more followers on social media.  They are also profiled on the #SBS website (www.theopaphitissbs.com) that is exclusive to all Small Business Sunday winners.

Alex Burnand Managing Director of Air-Seal Products said, “We are delighted to be selected as one of the six weekly winners.  We’ve been in business for over eighteen years and to have support from someone like Theo is invaluable.  It can be tough trying to raise your social media profile and Theo Small Business Sunday has helped us achieve just that”

Mr. Paphitis said: “My vision is that everyone who has ever won a #SBS re-tweet from me becomes part of a friendly club; like-minded individuals who can share successes and learnings.

Anyone looking for a re‐tweet from Theo should tweet him about their business on Sunday between 5pm and 7.30pm and include the hashtag #SBS.

 

26th June 2018
Transport Engineer - Tyres: Are tyre sealants appropriate for CV fleets?

 

 

Tyre sealants are claimed to provide remedial and preventative solutions to road damage. Fleet engineers need to understand where a vehicle is working and how far it travels before considering them. Kevin Swallow reports

 

Punctures are a problem Idris Stephens contends with every day, in his role as tyre fleet engineer at Smith’s (Gloucester). A mixed fleet of 150 vehicles works on duties such as waste management, where off-road work cannot be avoided.

In 2005, he discovered the heavy-duty liquid sealant from Air-Seal Products at the Hillhead Show in Buxton, Derbyshire (returning this month: 26-28 June). A trial proved that the tyre sealant could extend its tyres’ working lives, and save money. The fluid, either ethylene or propylene glycol-based, is poured inside the tyre, and is free to flow as it rotates. The tyre’s own air pressure forces fibres and fillers suspended in the fluid into the hole, and stops the leak.

“Once we started trialling it, we noticed the number of roadside incidents involving tyres reduce,” explains Stephens. “The fleet runs on 295, 315 and 385 tyres, and around 85% of the fleet now uses sealant. We spend around £200,000 a year on tyres.”

Smiths’ drivers regularly check tyres for foreign objects. Stephens adds: “We don’t want them pulling out nails just in case the sealant doesn’t take, and the tyre deflates. We do visual checks at the workshop and can tell if the tyre pressure is down. We’ll check it, take out the object and let the sealant do its work, then reflate the tyre back up to the correct pressure,” he says.

Determining exactly how successful the sealant has been for the fleet is difficult, he admits, but he does say that its vehicles tend to have less downtime since it started using the sealants. He also uses sealant on larger off-road plant vehicles, and in one case discovered a tyre with more than 20 nails, all successfully sealed.

Mike Smith, a technical representative for Air-Seal Products, describes tyre sealant as a “permanent temporary repair” to the tyre. At this year’s CV Show, he demonstrated how it works by driving nails into a tyre with a water-based sealant mix of rubber, Kevlar and porcelain (do not try this). Once the tyre was penetrated, he removed the nail and rotated the tyre, allowing the sealant to fill the puncture. He adds: “If the damage is too great, it manages the deflation rather than simply allowing the tyre to rapidly deflate. That will help you get to your destination and not be stranded beside the road.”

The sealant has found favour in UK fleets, reports Smith. “We supply Royal Mail, which uses it for their van fleet, with trials underway for heavy commercials as a preventative measure. It’s applied mechanically using a pump. A 295/80R22.5 tyre would typically take around 1.5 litres, and a litre weighs approximately 1kg.”

Although used in North America for more than 40 years, Belgian product Ultra-Seal was only introduced to Europe in 2016; Tamworth-based Trans UK Equipment Management is the UK distributor. The Ultra-Seal fluid, inserted before the tyre is mounted on the hub, includes rubber and fibres, and has an anti-rust and anti-corrosion formulation to protect the rim (pictured above).

As well as trials with major transport and logistics companies, Ultra-Seal also supplies Danish transport company DSV, which runs more than 7,000 trailers. “They have seen a reduction in punctures, blow-outs and breakdowns in tyres filled with Ultra-Seal. Tyres last about 35% longer due to better tyre pressure and therefore less tyre wear,” claims business development manager Carla van Santvoort.

A mix of short haul with off-road travel is the right scenario for using preventative tyre sealants, according to Stuart John. He is sales director of aftermarket firm Rema Tip Top Automotive UK. States John: “We are approached by a lot of plant hire companies, construction and off-road operators who use sealants in those situations where you might pick up a foreign object. That is where you have the benefit of tyre sealant.

“In my personal opinion, and with 30 years’ experience in the industry, I would not recommend a tyre sealant for long-haul,” he says. “You can pick up a nail in the tread area that penetrates the tyre. You don’t know what or how bad the injury of the tyre is; the tyre sealant could seal it temporarily for a few miles but the vehicle might travel another 200 miles. That injury is going to get worse to the point that it could blow the tyre, and the driver might not even have known he or she had a problem.”

Instead, he recommends long-haul operators fit a tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) that would identify a puncture or loss of pressure immediately. This technology may compete with the upper end of tyre sealant products. For example, Goodyear has stopped producing Duraseal, a sealant system that is part of the inner lining. It promotes its Proactive Solutions fleet monitoring system instead.

OTHER SUPPLIERS

Other tyre manufacturers still offer sealants for cars and light commercial vehicles: Continental produces ContiSeal, which is a viscous layer on the inner side of the tyre for punctures up to 5mm diameter. Michelin makes Selfseal; Pirelli produces Seal Inside tyres.

In general, tyre manufacturers steer clear of retro-applied remedial and preventative sealants, both as products and in commenting about their use. Multiple tyre manufacturers contacted declined to comment for this article.

But car recovery agency the AA did comment. About a quarter of respondents to a recent questionnaire run with a sealant-compressor solution rather than a full-size or space-saver spare tyre. It adds: “Sealant and a compressor saves space and weight, but won’t work for all punctures.”

If it does work, it is not considered a permanent repair, at least according to British Standard AU 159. This standard is referenced by the AA, charity Tyresafe, the British Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (BTMA) and the IRTE’s own Bus and Coach Tyre Maintenance best practice guide (see link). The standard recommends that if drivers discover a foreign object, they should get the tyre checked at a garage and replaced if necessary. (According to Dexel Tyre & Auto Centre, BS AU 159 only applies to cars and vans, and not commercial vehicles or heavy plant.)

Belgian company Ultra-Seal took its battle to get sealants recognised as a genuine solution into court, and has prevailed over tyre associations in Germany and Denmark.

By extending tyres’ working life, even if only on a temporary basis, sealant suppliers are providing competition to Europe’s tyre manufacturers.

FURTHER INFORMATION

More about BS AU 159 – https://is.gd/biquze and https://is.gd/ulecok

Best Practice Guide for Bus & Coach Tyre Maintenance (IRTE) – https://is.gd/ukisap

 

Author
Kevin Swallow

 

20th June 2018
Air-Seal Products confirms silver membership with Constructionline

We are thrilled to announce that we have been officially awarded our Silver Membership with Constructionline!

Constructionline is a register of pre-qualified suppliers and buyers, to government standards and allows buyers and customers to know we have been pre-qualified which takes some of the hard work away from them.

 

 

30th May 2018
Prosegur Chile visit - May 2018

Pictured our Chilean distributor with another happy customer. Having tried an inferior tyre sealant, security company Prosegur continue to see the benefit of our premium sealants.

1st May 2018
Tyre-related deaths and injuries preventable say Highways England and Bridgest

Almost three quarters of motorway incidents related to tyre failure could be prevented if drivers carry out simple checks, according to startling new research unveiled by Highways England and tyre company Bridgestone.

More than 30 people were killed or seriously injured in motorway accidents in 2016 due to illegal or faulty tyres.

But an 18-month study says commuters, commercial drivers and other road users can do a lot more to help reduce accidents through regular checking.

To see Bridgestone’s tyre debris study brought to life, visit  https://youtu.be/-KSt1a1ndgc

Richard Leonard, Highways England’s head of road safety, said: “England’s motorways are the safest in the world but we’re determined to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on them.

“This important research confirms our view that road users must play a bigger role and get into the habit of checking tyre pressures and tread depths and looking out for nails and other debris stuck in tyres before setting out on journeys. These simple checks could save lives.”

Unveiled today at the annual Commercial Vehicle Show at Birmingham’s NEC, the research reveals that almost three quarters of tyre failure samples analysed by Bridgestone involved poor inflation or debris penetration issues – problems which could be potentially avoided with better tyre husbandry.

Both Bridgestone and Highways England, the government company for operating, maintaining and improving the country’s motorways and major A roads, are partners in the multi-agency road safety charity Tyresafe.  They worked together to carry out the research over 18 months between the beginning of 2016 and last summer.

During the project, staff working for Highways England at depots across the West Midlands provided more than 1,000 pieces of tyre debris from motorways to a technical engineering team from Bridgestone to analyse.

The findings from 1035 tyre segments retrieved from the M1, M6, M40, M5 and M42 revealed:

•           56% of tyres failed due to road/yard debris penetration
•           18% failed due to poor inflation
•           8% failed due to poor vehicle maintenance
•           1% of tyres failed due to manufacturing defects
•           1% of tyres failed due to excessive heat
•           16% of the tyres couldn’t be specified to one particular problem

The tyre debris was taken from cars, vans, commercial vehicles and motorbikes, with under-inflation of tyres a key theme, along with poor vehicle maintenance, both of which accounted for 26% of the entire sample. When considering that 32 people were killed or seriously injured in motorway road traffic accidents in 2016 due to ‘illegal, defective or underinflated tyres’ Bridgestone and Highways England say simple tyre checks save lives.

In addition, the cost to the economy from a 2-hour delay on a busy stretch of motorway following a 2-lane closure stands at £135,360 and a massive £1,488,960 for a 3-lane closure lasting up to four hours.

Some of the samples were particularly alarming, with a temporary ‘space-saver’ spare tyre being run to destruction, while a number of potentially lethal and illegal ‘string’ repairs were also found on car tyres, which are completely unsuitable at any speed, let alone 70mph speeds on motorways.

Bridgestone technical manager Gary Powell, who oversaw the analysis of the debris with field engineer Peter Moulding and the rest of the firm’s technical department, said:

“This report has taken a great deal of time and effort, involving a painstaking process of collecting tyre debris over 18 months and analysing it in depth thereafter. In conclusion, some simple tyre checks can save lives, not to mention reduce the risk of a stressful breakdown on a motorway.

“With proper vehicle inspection and maintenance programs, many of the failure methods noted should be detectable and preventable. In light of these results, we would also advise that tyre pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) are fitted to vehicles which don’t benefit from this technology already. It will assist with the detection of penetrations and deflations.”

30th April 2018
Expomin show in Santiago Chile.

Team Air-Seal at last week's Expomin show in Santiago Chile. Our 3rd year at this biannual mining event

 

 

23rd October 2017
Our Chilean distributor working hard at The Seguridad Show in Santiago, Chile

Here is Said Gidi, our Chilean distributor from Airseal-Chile, exhibiting at The Seguridad Show in Santiago, Chile. The show runs from 23rd - 25th October. You can find Said demonstrating our premier tyre sealants on Stand Number 643 ES.

 

9th January 2006
Increase in tyre prices - we can decrease your tyre cost

Several leading tyre manufacturers have just increased their prices by up to 10% and also limited production of larger tyre sizes are resulting in a delayed delivery.

Use our tyre sealants and we can increase the tyre life by up to 20% and save you from replacement costs for your existing and new tyres.