Every day we are becoming more vigilant about the way we consume and aim for a better future for our children.

In France, we change tyres every 20 months on average, which represents approximately 150 tyres in a driver’s life!

Wouldn’t it be worth challenging your tyres too?!

Driving BLACK STAR is a confident choice:

Technology

Circular economy

Material reuse

Made in France

WHAT IS A RETREADED/RECONDITIONED TYRE?

Give a second life to your tyre !

Retreading allows the reuse of worn tyres whose casing (support), while remaining healthy, has retained all of its potential. The tread and sidewalls are replaced using a specific process and industrial technology to give them a new life without compromising their safety and efficiency. The retreading technique is widely used in demanding sectors such as civil aviation and heavy goods vehicles. Currently, on the European replacement market, nearly one in three heavy goods vehicle tyres is a retread.

The reused casings (carcass)

At BLACK STAR, it all starts with a meticulous selection of used tyre casings, from the best brands on the market. Next comes a rigorous and manual inspection of the carcass (pressurization, control of the tread, of the sides, calendaring).
A carcass must be in perfect condition to be retreaded. Casings which have been repaired or damaged are eliminated. The control is carried out by our specialists on all the received tyres. Only used tyres whose casing remain in in good conditions will be reused.

Roughening

The roughening phase consists in removing parts of the original rubber from the tread and the sides, in order to obtain a surface capable of receiving new materials. Each grater with digital controls (2 heads, 3 axes) has several thousand programs developed for each dimension, brand and carcass profile. Machine precision is to the millimetre.

Rubber mixing and napping

The grated tyres are then cladded (sidewalls and tread) with a very precise and perfectly regular rubber mix, developed by a manufacturer of new tyres. After the napping, the static unbalance of each tyre is checked and corrected if necessary.

Heating/ Vulcanisation

Installed comfortably in its mould, itself well settled in a press, the tyre goes for a 50 min sauna session ! Just like in the new tyre industry, and to acquire new physical properties, the tyre will be vulcanised (heated) at 155°C and 13 bar pressure for 50 minutes (the vulcanisation time differs depending on the tyre to be retreaded !)

The final control

Each tyred is inspected.
Before getting to the end customer, 100% of BLACK STAR finished products must still be submitted to:

  • a final control step (exterior / interior) according to more than 50 criteria (pressurization, control of the tread, sides, calendaring, etc.)
  • verification by stereography scanner (same technology for aircraft tyre retreading) in order to detect if the structure has defects visually undetectable (thin separation of the layers, pockets of air occluded under the tread).

 And your reconditioned tyre is good to hit the road!

JOIN THE CIRCULAR REVOLUTION!

220 million tyres are fitted and removed every year in Europe. That is about 6 million tons of CO² each year to produce them, the annual equivalent of the CO² emissions of a city of 500,000 inhabitants!

In a world with limited resources, Black Star is committed to the circular economy, reuse, and promoting the second life of tyres.

Founded in 1979, Black Star is the only French manufacturer specializing in the manufacture of reconditioned tyres for light vehicles. It continues its goal of producing reconditioned tires on a large scale, made in France, including the takeover of the former Bridgestone industrial site in Béthune.

MATERIAL REUSE

Remanufacturing means limiting the use of raw materials and reducing waste. Faced with the temptation of low-cost, often imported, single-use tyres, BLACK STAR offers an alternative: revitalizing a tyre's casing to reduce its impact. By extending a tyre's lifespan, you optimize its mileage and fully exploit its potential.

Retreading a tyre also means optimizing its productivity by increasing its mileage output.

MADE IN FRANCE

Black Star embodies “made in France” with its two factories in the territory. It is also a reflection of reindustrialisation, the textbook case of relocation!

When the closure of the Bridgestone factory in Béthune was announced, Black Star and Mobivia (two French players) took the gamble of maintaining the business and employment on this emblematic site (47,000 m²).

Black Star understands the term "Reuse" in its entirety: reuse of the site, the tool, the professional know-how (target 200 jobs), and reuse of the product. Black Star's teams put innovation at the service of the circular economy (source & distribution), installed in an integrated ecosystem around the second life of the tyre.