BKT opens India R&D centre

When Tyrepress.com visited BKT’s new factory in Bhuj, India late in 2015, work had begun on a new research and development centre. The off-road tyre maker reports that this facility is now complete, and it recently inaugurated the ‘Suresh Poddar Innovation Hub’. The centre is named after the oldest of the three Poddar brothers. It is located within a 25-acre area called the Mahabirprasad Poddar Knowledge Center, named after BKT founder, the late Mahabirprasad Poddar.

According to BKT, the R&D centre contains “the best range of equipment and software available” and is managed by an “expert team of engineers, chemists and technicians” who deal with all aspects of BKT tyre development, from tyre design and compound creation through to improving product performance and implementing processes for an “efficient and customised production of cutting-edge tyres.”

Research at the site will focus on new materials that can add to the sustainability and environmental-friendliness of BKT products. Another emphasis will be on nanotechnologies, especially in view of creating new components. A test track is located close to the centre, and here BKT can perform in-depth tyre performance tests, simulating real application conditions.

Through the use of innovative technology and employment of new talent, BKT states its aim of making the Suresh Poddar Innovation Hub the “number one research centre” in the off-highway sector anywhere in the world. The tyre maker adds that its “ambition and vision is to demonstrate that the company is able to compete among the big market players and to continuously grow even in the OTR and mining sectors.”