After thirty years of experience in the Off-Highway tyre market, BKT presents its new Research and Development Centre at Bhuj, enhancing the change of pace already under way over recent years.

Two years after BKT inaugurated its showpiece production site in Bhuj, the company has now set up its new Research & Development Centre at the facility. Aptly named “Suresh Poddar Innovation Hub” in honour of Suresh, the eldest of the Poddar brothers, the R&D Centre is situated within an area of 25 acres called the ‘Mahabirprasad Poddar Knowledge Centre’ (MPKC), in remembrance of BKT’s highly estimated founding father, late Mahabirprasad Poddar.
Designed for organizing all spaces from a completely functional viewpoint, the new Research & Development Centre includes the best range of equipment and software available managed by an expert team of engineers, chemists and technicians dealing with any aspect pertaining to the technological development of BKT tires: starting from designing a new tyre and creating compounds to improve product performance up to implementing processes for an efficient and customized production of cutting-edge tyres.

Research will focus on new materials in order to alter the course always more towards sustainable and environmentally friendly elements. Another central point is its all applicative aspects and options of nanotechnologies, especially in view of creating new components.

Says Dilip Vaidya, President and Director Technology, BKT, “We feel it’s our responsibility to anticipate technological market trends. These new technologies are already partially available in the automotive and road transport sectors. Undoubtedly, in future, they will also be applied to Off-Highway or OTR, such as driverless vehicles, ore remote-controlled container handling equipment, for instance. Yet, as soon as the Original Equipment Industry develops so-called smart solutions, BKT will be ready to support these vehicles with likewise smart tires – one of the reasons why the new Research & Development Centre in Bhuj has been built.”

Close to the new Centre is the modern testing track, which allows for in-depth tyre performance tests simulating real application conditions in order to obtain updated and detailed data and analyses. The purpose is the continuous improvement of product quality and their ability to best adapt to the most differing Off-Highway applications.

By means of innovation added to training new talents, the new Research & Development Centre in Bhuj aims to become the premier research centre in the Off-Highway tyre sector worldwide. The company’s ambition is to demonstrate that it is able to compete among the big market players and to continuously grow even in the OTR and mining sectors. The company’s vision is to turn the R&D Centre into a Global Research Centre “that wins recognition on a global scale as a place where innovation is bred and talents are grown,” says Vaidya.