Bridgestone plant making off-road tires as expansion project continues

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The largest industrial project in South Carolina history is more than halfway done, and Bridgestone is already making 9-foot tires while construction continues on the part of the plant that will make 12-foot tires.

“We have a qualification process in our company that we hold tires prior to sale until we complete that process. We aren’t selling tires at this moment, but we are producing some,” said Steve Brooks, the chief project officer at the Graniteville site.

The $1.2 billion project, which also involved the expansion of a nearby passenger tire plant, was announced in the summer of 2011 as the largest investment in state history. Bridgestone is building a 1.5 million-square-foot facility in Aiken County to produce off-road tires, targeted for quarry and construction machines. The tire maker was exclusively making the ultra-large tires in Japan, which is where the Aiken County workers are being trained on the equipment.

The 9-foot, 5,000-pound off-road radial tires are the ones going through a quality assurance process by Bridgestone. Brooks said he expects the tires coming off the line at the end of April to go to the market for sale to customers.

The 250 workers for that section of the plant have been hired. Brooks said hiring for management positions in the 12-foot tire production section will begin next year. That part of the facility will also employ 250 people.

Brooks said the equipment to produce the larger tires will be ready in 2015.

“By the end of the year, we’ll be in production,” he said.

Brooks said the 12-foot tires weigh about 12,000 pounds each. The tires in the plant are moved by cranes in the ceiling of the facility.

“We do have some forklift movement, but most of its is overhead crane,” Brooks said. “It is very heavy work. As an example, one of our cranes picks up 90 tons at a pop.”

Brooks said there is another phase of equipment expansion to the plant that would kick in only if demand warrants a boost in production capacity.

Source: The Augusta Chronicle
Published: 17 Mar 2014