JK Tyre and Industries Ltd, one of the biggest tyre manufacturers in India, inaugurated the Raghupati Singhania Centre of Excellence at their Mysore manufacturing plant. This new ‘Global Technology Centre’ is the company’s most modern R&D centre to date.
The company has installed world-class R&D equipment in the new building. It includes high-tech rubber testing systems like fatigue to failure machines, abrasion testers, tear and fatigue analysers and dynamic mechanical analysers etc. These systems serve the purpose of measuring the tyre’s rolling resistance, performance after a certain number of cycles, crack tests and force tests. Furthermore, they have constructed multiple reinforcement, ageing and calibration laboratories where the materials are exposed to artificially created extreme weather conditions, to calculate and enhance the durability of the tyres. They also conduct real-world tests like aquaplaning and skid resistance at their track in the same facility.
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On the inauguration of their new R&D centre, Dr. Raghupati Singhania, Chairman and MD, JK Tyre and Industries Ltd. said, “The Mysore facility is our largest manufacturing plant not only in Karnataka but in the whole of India and that’s why our new tech centre will be based here. We manufacture 3.3 million tyres every year, together, from all our plants and we export to over 100 countries. Though, this new technology centre will serve a greater purpose like tackling the new challenge of adapting to electric mobility. We’re ready to adapt to new age rules and technology for green and electric cars and we have started developing ultra-low rolling resistance tyres for the same”.
According to figures from the company, the new R&D building costs about Rs. 75 crore with an additional expenditure of Rs. 120 crore for equipment. Overall, JK tyre has made an investment of more than Rs. 200 crore.
The Chief Minister of Karnataka, H.D. Kumaraswamy, attended the event and lit the candle to inaugurate the new R&D centre and also to celebrate 25 years of Hari Shankar Singhania Elastomer and Tyre Research Institute (HASETRI). At the moment, JK tyre has a manufacturing capacity of over 32 million tyres from nine plants in India and three in Mexico.