Bridgestone Americas has opened a new Bandag Training Center on its Akron campus, a $3 million investment that will teach commercial tire dealers and fleets how retreaded tires perform — and how they save money and keep tires out of landfills. The company announced the opening in a release carried by Traction News, saying the center will host hundreds of industry professionals each year for seminars and tailored classes of all sizes.
The nearly 15,000-square-foot center sits inside Bridgestone’s tire test lab, next to the company’s Advanced Tire Production Center in Akron, according to the announcement. Inside is a complete retread facility with production-scale manufacturing equipment and stations for each of the ten retreading steps, along with a classroom and a Bandag history walk tracing the brand’s role in the industry.
"Bandag retreads have been a staple solution in the commercial tire industry for more than half a century," Brian Douglas, Bridgestone’s vice president for Retread North America, said in the company’s announcement, as reported by Traction News. "With the addition of this second training center, Bridgestone aims to strengthen its support for dealers and fleets, matching the value they get from retreads on the road," he said in the announcement.
The Akron center is only the second designated Bandag Training Center in the Bridgestone network, joining the established Bandag Learning Center in Muscatine, Iowa, according to the company. Having two sites lets Bridgestone spread training demand across the country and give more dealer and fleet technicians hands-on time with retread products, equipment and processes.
When classes are not in session, the company says it plans to use the Akron center as an additional site for tire-retreading innovation. Teams in Muscatine, Akron and Nashville will use it to test new products and introduce new manufacturing equipment and processes, according to the announcement — work that ties the training mission directly to product development.
Bandag has sold retreading solutions since 1957 and operates three pre-cured tread rubber plants, a retread equipment plant and a mold plant in the United States, the company said. Over its history, Bandag says it has diverted more than 300 million tires from landfills by extending their service lives through retreading — the sustainability case the new center will teach visiting fleets and dealers.
The opening adds to Akron’s long identity as a tire-industry city and gives the campus a steady stream of visiting professionals. Bridgestone Americas, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, employs more than 45,000 people across its worldwide operations, according to the company.