INTERVIEW WITH SALVADORI

Salvadori was founded in 1983 and is based in Rovereto, northern Italy. The company has started their activity as supplier of consumables for the tire retreading industry and over the years, they have broadened their scope to include also solutions for rubber and tire recycling.

Since 2016, Salvadori is part of TRC – Technical Rubber Company– headquartered in Ohio, USA which is a leading manufacturer of rubber, industrial material solutions and recycling equipment.

Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?

SALVADORI: Salvadori’s mission is to help the World to turn Waste into Value by providing equipment that makes it possible to Recycle tires’ rubber and transform it into new finished goods: we give a second life to such valuable raw material. We are active in the so-called circular economy and to this aim, we provide a wide range of equipment for:

  • Downsizing and debeading all kinds of Tires, even giant 63” tires utilized by earth-movers in the mining industry.
  • Painting lines for mulch and buffing dust typically coming as a by-product from Tire Retreading sector.
  • Moulding lines transforming Rubber Crumb coming out of shredding lines into new products.

E.E: What’s the news for 2021 about new products?

SALVADORI: We have been cooperating with customers to develop innovative moulding systems to manufacture new type of products for the construction industry that secure superior performance and cost less than current technology, while at the same time reducing the carbon footprint. Our focus has been on automating the production process: we rely on PLC controlled units both for the mixing part, in which the recycled rubber crumb is mixed with a binding agent, and the moulding part, in which the mixture is evenly spread into a mould mounted on a press and takes shape thanks to a constant pressure.

2021 is also giving us the chance to improve concepts that we developed over the last few years but that are gaining momentum right now. We are speaking of our cutting system to downsize big 63” mining tires: Salvadori is at the forefront of this application and thanks to some improved features, we can now provide companies dealing with Off the Road (OTR) tires with a system assuring high efficiency and extreme flexibility in the most challenging operating environment, combined with the most advanced remote real-time diagnostic.

E.E: What are the ranges of products?

SALVADORI: Being active in the rubber recycling industry with a historical focus on tires, we have captured our market by identifying two main unmet needs: processing big tires to allow them to enter into a shredding line and giving value to what was coming out of it. In these two fields, we are producing a wide range of solutions which are often customized to perfectly fit each customer’s requirements. We can now help companies downsize all kind of tires and transform their ideas into products with our moulding systems.

We follow a structured 4D approach that first Discover customers’ needs and set our duty specifications; second, it Develop the solution; third it Design the equipment and eventually Deploy it by installing the equipment, training customer’ staff, and set up After Sales Service.

E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?

SALVADORI: It varies hugely from Country to Country. It for sure still developing but while in Europe tire recycling is more mature in many other countries all over the world tires are not treated at all and end in landfill or are just abandoned. There is still a lot that needs to be done to 1- raise awareness on the importance of tire recycling and 2-provide countries with the right legal framework to implement a sound recycling culture. 

E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?

SALVADORI: The strive for sustainability and the need for recycling are shifting from a nice-to-have to a must-have and as a consequence, the market is growing year after year. This potential has led to investments in new technologies: among those, devulcanization and pyrolysis are the most promising ones but moulding goods manufacturing still remains the backbone of the industry.

E.E: What estimations do you have for 2021?

SALVADORI: 2020 was a challenging year for many industries and the recycling one is no exception. The uncertainty brought by the CoVid-19 pandemic hindered investments because many companies preferred to stay on the safe side and see what was going to happen. The emergency situation has now transformed into a new normal and the industry is starting to look at the post-CoVid era. We are seeing this in 2021 already: we have started the year with a solid number of orders and we are working with our customers on different projects that have the potential to make this year become one of the bests in terms of turnover. We are very happy with the results achieved until now and have great expectations for the months to come!