Petlas invests $20m in “smart” tire warehouse

Ankara, Turkey – Tire-maker Petlas has started up a “smart storage system” at its facility in Kirsehir, Turkey, as part of a strategy to transition to Industry 4.0.

The Turkish manufacturer opened the $20-million (€18.5 million) warehouse on 15 Dec, highlighting its capacity to transfer up to 1 million tires for storage.

The system operates “without human touch”, using robots to transfer the tires to the warehouse, after final control and automatic test processes are completed.

The multi-storey warehouse also enables recording of all warehousing and logistics processes while facilitating “systematic shipping of tires”, the company added.

“All storage activities and product movements carried out in the system are managed and recorded by a special software,” said Petlas general manager Hakan Yaln?z.

The facility, Yalniz went on to say, are part of Petlas’ ongoing investment projects to make the company “a known and preferred brand in the global tire market.”

Petlas operates a single production factory in Kirsehir, Turkey, where it has the capacity to produce 11 million tires per year.

The tire plant, claimed to be “Europe’s largest in terms of square metres", produces passenger car, truck & bus, off-road and aircraft tires, in 2,500 sizes.