End-of-life tires are one of the most persistent waste challenges in the world. They are bulky, non-biodegradable, and expensive to handle when loose. Gradeall International, a specialist manufacturer based in Dungannon, Northern Ireland, has spent nearly 40 years designing and manufacturing tire recycling equipment for customers in over 100 countries that makes this problem manageable, whether you are processing a few hundred car tires a week or tens of thousands of truck and OTR tires a month.
Waste tires pose a specific set of problems that most general waste solutions cannot address. Stored loose, they take up enormous space, collect standing water that breeds mosquitoes, and present a serious fire risk. Transported loose in containers, they are prohibitively expensive to move because of how little you can fit per load.
Gradeall’s equipment addresses these problems at the source. By reducing tire volume before transport or processing, facilities cut haulage costs by up to 70%, recover valuable materials including steel, rubber, and textile fiber, and meet disposal regulations that now apply in most countries worldwide.
Globally, over 1.5 billion end-of-life tires are generated every year. Regulations on tire disposal have tightened across North America, Europe, Australia, and many emerging markets, with landfill bans and waste carrier licensing now common. Baling and processing are the standard commercial approach for any operation handling more than token volumes.
Tire balers are the centerpiece of most tire recycling operations. They compress loose tires into dense, stable bales that are straightforward to transport, store, and sell on for downstream processing or civil engineering use.
Gradeall manufactures four distinct tire baler configurations to match different tire types and processing volumes.
The MKII is Gradeall’s flagship machine and one of the world’s most widely deployed tire balers. Running at 45 tons of pressing force, it produces up to six PAS 108-compliant bales per hour, with each bale containing up to 110 car tires and achieving an 80% reduction in volume. It operates on a 15kW, 415V three-phase supply and is the standard starting point for car tire recycling operations of any meaningful scale. Truck tires can be processed through the MKII after sidewall cutting.
The MK3 steps up to 75 tons of pressing force and is designed for high-volume operations where throughput is the priority. Each bale takes approximately 20 minutes to produce and holds up to 140 tires. Crucially, the MK3 produces a wider bale than the standard PAS 108 format, sized to load directly into a standard shipping container, which cuts loading and unloading time at both ends of an export journey. It pairs well with Gradeall’s conveyor systems to reduce operator loading effort at high output rates.
The Truck Tire Baler is built specifically for commercial vehicle tires, which are too large and rigid for standard car tire balers. At 50 tons of pressing force, it produces bales of up to 12 truck tires with a 60% volume reduction. A chain bale ejection system removes completed bales cleanly without manual intervention.
Where tires are collected across multiple dispersed sites, moving them to a central facility for baling can negate the cost savings. The Portable Tire Baling System brings the baling process to the tires rather than the other way around. It delivers the same processing output as the MKII but runs from a three-phase diesel generator, making it independent of fixed power infrastructure. It is particularly useful for rural collection programs, agricultural operations, and markets with limited waste infrastructure.
Sidewall cutting is often the first processing step before baling, particularly for truck and agricultural tires. Cutting the sidewalls removes the steel wire bead and allows the tire to compress more fully in the baler, improving bale quality, output speed, and PAS 108 compliance.
Gradeall produces three sidewall cutter configurations, each sized for a different tire type.
The Car Tire Sidewall Cutter is built for passenger car tires and smaller commercial vehicle tires. The operator stands safely away from the cutting board, and the machine is designed with the cutting action directed away from the operator’s position. This machine is the logical first step for facilities that want to maximize the output quality of their MKII baler.
The Truck and Agricultural Tire Sidewall Cutter handles tires from standard truck and bus sizes up to large agricultural and tractor tires. The machine picks up the tire, cuts both sidewalls, and returns it to the ground. It requires two-hand operation and has three emergency stop buttons. The design philosophy throughout is that operator safety comes before processing speed.
OTR (off-the-road) tires from mining, quarrying, and large construction plant are a category in themselves. They are too large for standard cutting equipment and too heavy to handle without dedicated machinery. The OTR Tire Sidewall Cutter processes these tires and, used in combination with the OTR Tire Splitter, reduces them to segments weighing under 25 kg, making them manageable for further processing, baling, shredding, or pyrolysis.
Large OTR tires present challenges that go beyond what standard baling and cutting equipment is designed to handle. Gradeall’s OTR range addresses both the cutting and the splitting stages needed to bring these tires down to a processable size.
The OTR Tire Splitter applies 85 tons of cutting force to reduce oversized mining and agricultural tires into segments. These segments can be baled, shredded, or sent directly for energy recovery or civil engineering applications. Combined with the OTR Sidewall Cutter, the OTR range gives processing facilities a complete solution for the largest tires in circulation.
Steel and alloy rims have significant scrap value. Separating them from the rubber tire before processing means recovering that value rather than losing it in downstream shredding or baling.
The standard Tire Rim Separator handles passenger car and light commercial vehicle tires. An automatic safety guard closes fully over the tire during separation, and two-hand operation is required throughout. It is well-suited to vehicle dismantlers, scrapyards, and garages that want quick, safe access to scrap metal value from the rims they accumulate.
Following the success of the standard model, Gradeall developed the Truck Tire Rim Separator for the much heavier steel rims on commercial vehicle tires. Guards surround the tire during operation to protect the operator and prevent debris from becoming a hazard.
Agricultural and tractor tires are mostly air by volume, which makes them bulky and awkward to store or transport. Standard tire processing equipment is not built to handle their dimensions. The Gradeall Agricultural Tire Shear applies 30 tons of cutting force, lifts the tire off the ground, and cuts it into smaller sections that can be handled by conventional processing equipment. It is a practical first step for any facility dealing with farm or machinery tires in significant quantities.
Loading a tire baler manually at high volumes is physically demanding and slows throughput. Gradeall’s Inclined Tire Baler Conveyor allows operators to feed tires onto the conveyor from ground level, with the machine bringing them up to the baler inlet automatically.
The conveyor is designed to pair with both the MKII and MK3 Tire Balers and is available in profiles to suit different site layouts. At high processing volumes, the health and safety benefit is significant: repetitive lifting of tires at height is one of the leading causes of musculoskeletal injury in recycling operations.
Processing waste tires is not just about disposal. The outputs have genuine commercial and engineering value across a number of sectors.
Tire bales produced to PAS 108 specification are used in civil engineering as embankment fill, road sub-base, and drainage layer material. Their flexibility, durability, and drainage characteristics make them well-suited to applications over soft ground. Cement manufacturers use tire-derived fuel as a partial replacement for fossil fuels in kiln operation, with regulated emissions controls in place. Crumb rubber from shredded tires is used in road surfaces, playground safety surfaces, artificial sports pitches, and molded rubber products. Steel wire recovered from the rim and bead separation process feeds back into construction and manufacturing supply chains.
“For most operations, the question isn’t whether tire recycling equipment pays for itself; it’s how quickly,” says Conor Murphy, Director of Gradeall International. “When you reduce transport costs by 70% and start recovering scrap steel from rims that previously had no value, the economics become clear within the first year of operation for most facilities.”
Choosing the right combination of equipment depends on the tire types you handle and your monthly volumes.
For car tire operations processing up to 5,000 tires per month, the MKII Tire Baler with a Car Tire Sidewall Cutter covers most requirements. At 5,000 to 20,000 tires per month, adding an inclined conveyor system significantly improves throughput and reduces operator fatigue. Above 20,000 tires per month, the MK3 Tire Baler or a multi-baler configuration with integrated conveyors is the appropriate approach.
For truck tire operations, the Truck Tire Sidewall Cutter and Truck Tire Baler work as a pair, with the Truck Tire Rim Separator adding scrap metal recovery where rims are present. For OTR and agricultural tires, the OTR Tire Splitter, OTR Tire Sidewall Cutter, and Agricultural Tire Shear each address a specific part of the problem.
Gradeall’s technical team conducts assessments based on your processing volumes, tire types, site layout, and power supply before recommending a configuration. Equipment is exported worldwide and can be configured for North American 480V/60Hz supplies, European and UK 415V/50Hz, and bespoke specifications for other markets.
Gradeall International Ltd is a specialist manufacturer of tire recycling and waste management equipment, based in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. The company has been in operation for nearly 40 years, manufacturing from a 5-acre facility with an in-house design and engineering team that uses Finite Element Analysis in equipment development.
The combined engineering team experience across the business exceeds 200 years. Equipment is designed and built to UK and EU standards, carries CE marking, and is exported to more than 100 countries, from Iceland to Australia and Panama to Italy. All spare parts are OEM. Raw materials are sourced primarily from Irish and British suppliers.
Customers can visit the Dungannon facility for on-site equipment demonstrations before committing to a purchase, and Gradeall provides installation, operator training, and ongoing maintenance support globally.
What is PAS 108 and why does it matter for tire baling? PAS 108 is the British standard for tire bales used in civil engineering and construction. It specifies the dimensions, density, and wire binding requirements that a bale must meet to be accepted for engineering applications such as embankment fill and road sub-base. The MKII Tire Baler produces bales that comply with PAS 108, which is an important factor for recyclers whose customers include construction and civil engineering contractors.
Can I process truck tires in a standard car tire baler? Truck tires can be processed through the MKII Tire Baler, but pre-cutting the sidewalls with a Truck and Agricultural Tire Sidewall Cutter first improves bale quality significantly and extends the life of the baler. Trying to force whole truck tires through a car tire baler without sidewall cutting is a false economy: the bale quality suffers and the machine works harder than it needs to.
How much does tire recycling equipment reduce transport costs? Baling car tires with the MKII reduces tire volume by 80%, which in practice means you can fit roughly five to six times as many tires in a given container or vehicle load. For truck tires, the Truck Tire Baler achieves a 60% volume reduction. Operators typically report transport cost reductions of up to 70% after installing baling equipment.
What power supply do Gradeall tire balers require? The most common global specification is 415V, three-phase, 50Hz, standard across Europe, the UK, Australia, and many other markets. For North American customers, machines can be configured for 480V, three-phase, 60Hz. Other voltage specifications are available on request. The Portable Tire Baling System is designed to run from a three-phase diesel generator, making it suitable for sites without mains three-phase supply.
Is Gradeall equipment available worldwide? Gradeall exports tire recycling equipment to more than 100 countries. Container-optimized shipping is available, and documentation, installation support, and operator training are provided across all markets. Regional service partnerships are in place across key markets in Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, and the Gulf States.
What maintenance support does Gradeall provide? Gradeall equipment can be accessed remotely for diagnostic purposes, and a bale count can be performed remotely. Scheduled and breakdown service is available on all machines. Gradeall maintains large spare parts inventories and provides ongoing support through its global service engineer network.
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