South Bend News-Times, Volume 35, Number 77, South Bend, St. Joseph County, 18 March 1918 — Page 6

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Newly completed up-to-date tire manufacturing plant of the International India Rubber Corporation, M ain bui

By C. T. Franklin

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At eight o'clock this morning South Bend entered upon a new stage in her development as Indiana's leading industrial center and again it is the success and popularity of the automobile that is to bring to her greater prosperity and progress. Promptly at that hour a whistle blew and the wheels started turning in the ereat new tire manufacturing plant of the International India Rubber Corporation, recently erected in the city's fast gowing South end. As an automobile manufacturing center, South Bend already divides the limelight with Detroit. Now as a tire citv, it is to dim some of the o-lorv of Akron. The new plant is located on the company's own property, comprising 84- acres, extending from Ewing Avenue south to Jav Street and west from the right of wav of the Vandalia Railroad, its center being crossed by Layfayette Street.

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TM P-HND KOl.'GH TKlfAl) TIRI: .N;uii!r";i;turwi Y TlfUNATK N AI. INDIA RUBBER C( )KT()RAT1( )N Spilth Hnj, In J.

No special ceremony was arranged to celebrate the first day's operation of the new plant. Instead, the actual manufacturing of SOUTH BI:ND Tires (the name of which the company's product will be known) was begun with the same businesslike efficiency that has marked the tremendous and untiring labors of the management to erect and equip the buildings. A remark made yesterday by the general manager gives only a hint of some of the difficulties that have had to be met and overcome in securing the thousands of dollars worth of machinery now installed and running. He said: "Had we delayed only a few months longer in placing our orders for some of this machinery, or had we failed to keep right on the heels of the builders who contracted to furnish it, we would not have been able to begin production for another year. It would be practically impossible for any new company to start today and erect this plant in less than three years, no matter how many millions they might have to spend. Machinery and tool manufacturers are simply swamped with contracts, while, the railroads can make no promises of delivery." Several parties of prominent bankers and business men have recently visited the plant to congratulate the officers upon their achievement. Many will inspect the factory for the lirst time today and will be amazed to lind that it is completely equipped and titted to the last detail with every necessary improved and tested device And machine employed in the production of highgrade tires and tubes to the number of 500 daily, with plenty of room for further expansion. The International India Rubber Corporation was organized and its factory has been erected to meet the world's urgent need

of more tires. I say the world's need, because in addition to Representing with its glass walls and ceilings, its hundred and one time and labor-saving inventions and facilities, the last word in scientilic factory building design, its operation seems almost automatic. As in a match factory, logs are fed into one end of a machine to come out of the other end as matches packed in paper boxes, so the main building pictured 'above is as wonderful as any of the wonderful machines it contains. From freight cars on the private switch track, all the new materials needed for tire building are received through the doors of the south end of the building, whence they move forward with never a turn to the right or left or backward until they leave the north end of the structure as a ste.tdy stream of tinished tires. Between its walls has been assembled every necessary improved and perfected piece of machinery and every device that engineering skill has developed for manufacturing high-grade tires. As the lirst operation, the crude Para rubber is fed into a washing machine that chews it into particles and cleanses it of all impurities and foreign substances. A mammoth vacuum drum now receives the material and dries it thoroluffilv, extracting all moisture. It is now ready for combining with the compound which is to give it a touch, durable texture. From the compounding room it passes to the great mill line (3 machines weighing about 75 tons), in which it is kneaded until the "batch" is thoroughly mixed. The next operation must now wait until the mixture is properly "set," and for this purpose it is deposited in cne of several large storage bins of galvanized iron that surround the mills. Here the mixture and the fabric are brought together and the latter is passed through a roller machine, to remove every trace of dampness from the cotton and leave it dry as a bone.

MR. PETER E. STUDEBAKER, President.

After the compound has aged, the mixture and i.i'r : ready for the calendar, a gigantic machine weighing.;1 pounds. In the calendar enormous pressure i empl ; impregnate the fabric with the rubber breaker strip . coverings and the bodv fabric. From the calendar the stock is passed onward to the : department to workmen who cut it into strips of the . width and length for making tires and tubes i all size types. The material is now taking shape and lor:::. tube stock goes directly from here to the tube deparime:: casing stock to the tire builders in the next room. The re ing processes must be performed by hand, by workmen highest skill. From the tire builders, an overhead tmlietern carries the built up tires to the lareje vulcanized, wh!. all operated by automatic time and temperature control for curing, whence they are passed to the finishing der -r:. The product is now tinbhed and ready for the rieh! :- tion of the experts who are trained to detect the li-h:e ' or imperfection. If the tire passes their criticism, it N finished and moved along to the wrapping room and department at the south door of the building. the 5,000,000 cars in the United States, there are millionin South America and Europe that must be kept run n : meet the demands for transportation. And everv car rev on an average an entire set of new tires each vear.

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What this situation means to other tire manufacturin

panies and to South Bend's newest factory, is suggested in

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