Municipal waste-handling and material-recovery facilities like recycling are highly mechanised in view of the hazardous nature of the activity and is performed by bulk volume handling machines such as wheel loaders with large bucket volume.
In such conditions losses associated with frequent tire repair and replacement, downtime, and additional costs associated with excess inventory of spares is common place.
The OE tire fitment on these machines is generally pneumatic tires and prone to punctures and fast wear in such extremely abrasive and abusive environments.
Solid tires are ideally suited such applications as they are puncture-proof and are made from highly wear resistant rubber compounds. This gives them a lifespan that is four to five times that of conventional pneumatic tyres. Solid tires significantly improve occupational safety as there is no possibility of tyre blowout related accidents. One can imagine the impact of such an incident at a waste management or recycling facility.