JK Tyre, India’s third-largest tire maker, has inaugurated its new R&D facility, the US$24.3m Raghupati Singhania Centre of Excellence (RPSCOE) in Mysore, Karnataka.
RPSCOE, which is named after JK’s current chairman Raghupati Singhania, is part of the Harishankar Singhania Elastomer and Tyre Research Institute (HASETRI) and aims to consolidate the brand’s efforts toward product development, ideation and innovation by bringing the company’s engineers, technicians and scientists from JK Tyre’s previous four independent centers under one location. It will also coordinate the company’s product development and research operations in Mexico.
JK Tyre’s new facility will see more than 180 personnel test raw rubber, create simulations and predictive techniques for future offerings, and develop materials and compounds, computational mechanics and tire characterization. Further research will include development of advanced laboratory predictors for tire performance and providing key inputs of rubber products.
Located in close proximity to the manufacturer’s existing production plants in the region, RPSCOE is also the first tire testing facility in India to feature a semi-anechoic chamber that uses specialized software for noise, vibration and harshness data analysis.
“RPSCOE is a celebration of excellence, it is testimony to JK Tyre’s ethos of investing in technology,” said JK Tyre chairman and managing director Dr Raghupati Singhania. “Ever since we introduced India to radial tire technology in 1977, we have continued our search to stoke the scientific temperament.
“We want RPSCOE to become an aspiration not only for the people of Mysore but for the whole country. It has been a good beginning, now the people of Karnataka and Mysore will have to support us in building this facility, making it one of India’s treasured institutions for R&D.”
According to JK Tyre, which produces more 32 million tires per annum, RPSCOE is ready to meet future tire regulations and has earmarked an additional investment of US$7m over the next 18 months for the purchase of more equipment and machinery.
