At Continental, there is no let-up for the curing presses during the summer months, with factories across Europe currently busy producing winter tyres.

As in previous years, there are plans to deliver a good 20 million units to the shelves of specialist retailers around the world by the end of the forthcoming winter. To ensure that this target is met, Continental’s plants in Europe started – as they do every year – to manufacture winter tyres at the end of May. Production is in full flow at the factories in Aachen (North Rhine-Westphalia) and Korbach (Hesse).

For the specialists at the curing presses, “summer” is always one of the toughest times of the year. Passenger tyres are “baked” at temperatures in the region of 170°C, so high temperatures at the machines are commonplace.

There are strict quality requirements that need to be met when producing modern passenger tyres on the high-performance machinery. The Continental factories in Germany not only manufacture tyres for the domestic market – the tyres are also in demand in France, Italy, Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. The Korbach factory in particular has established itself as a specialist production site for winter tyres.

However, some of the tyres manufactured in this mountainous region of Hesse are not even approved for use in Germany. With their spikes that are inserted by a special machine, they are designed to deal with the harsh conditions presented by the severe winters in Scandinavia and Russia.

Other winter tyres, again only intended for Scandinavia, have extremely soft compounds capable of delivering maximum grip in icy conditions even without spikes. Given the relatively mild winter conditions in Germany, motorists there would run down these tyres within the space of a single season.

The tyre plant in Aachen is also something of a specialist. At this location near to the Belgian border, Continental focuses on “baking” winter tyres with runflat capabilities, which are specially tailored to the requirements of the original equipment market. Elsewhere in Sarreguemines (France), Lousado (Portugal), Otrokovice (Czech Republic), Puchov (Slovakia) and at the plant in Timisoara (Romania), production of Continental winter tyres is also in full swing during the summer months.