Dark and dirty
Field Intelligence gets to the bottom of things
His first visits to various mines around the world weren’t exactly a walk in the park. “I just kept thinking – what have you gotten yourself into?” says Torsten Niss, Head of Field Intelligence Europe and Commercial Speciality Tires. “Each time, it was a minor adventure. Sometimes we’d go more than 3,600 meters underground. Sometimes the temperature was more than 30°, at others less than 9° Celsius. Sometimes we were breathing damp air that was just plain bad. It took me a while to get used to it all.”
Together with his colleague Bruno Santos, Niss investigates how the specific conditions in each mine impact on the abrasion resistance and durability of mine vehicle tires. Their findings are applied to further optimize tires for the global mining industry – and boost sales. “We take samples of rocks, describe the underground roads, document everything,” says Niss. “And we are always fully kitted out – with protective clothing, breathing masks, and all our gear. We never know what we’ll encounter next!”