JK Tyre Inaugurates New Research And Development Facility In Mysore

India's third-largest tyre maker, JK Tyre inaugurated its new Research and Development (R&D) facility - Raghupati Singhania Centre of Excellence (RPSCOE) at Mysore, Karnataka. The new RPSCOE Centre is part of the Harishankar Singhania Elastomer and Tyre Research Institute (HASETRI) and aims to consolidate the brand's efforts towards product development, ideation and innovation. The R&D facility will be bringing the company's engineers, technicians, scientists from its previous four independent centres under one location, consolidating the tyre maker's growth effort. Apart from the Indian centres, the new R&D facility will also coordinate the company's product development and research operations in Mexico. RPSCOE has been built with an initial investment of over Rs. 175 crore that includes the infrastructure cost and the testing equipment.

JK Tyre's new R&D facility will see the company work on everything right from testing the raw rubber sourced to creating simulations and predictive techniques for future offerings. The facility has been named after its current chairman 'Raghupati Singhania' and is in close proximity to the manufacturer's existing production plants in the region. JK Tyre has a total of 12 manufacturing facilities globally, which include nine in India and three in Mexico.

Research at JK Tyre new R&D facility will include a number of aspects of tyre technology including development of advanced laboratory predictors for tyre performance and providing key inputs of rubber products. The facility employees over 180 personnel, who will be working on material and compound development, future technology development, computational mechanics and tyre characterisation. RPSCOE is also the first tyre testing facility in India that comes with the Semi-Anechoic Chamber that uses specialised software for noise, vibration and harshness data analysis.

Speaking at the inauguration, JK Tyre - Chairman and Managing Director, Dr. Raghupati Singhania said, "RPSCOE is a celebration of excellence, it is testimony to JK Tyre's ethos of investing in technology. Ever since we introduced India to radial tyre technology in 1977, we have continued our search to stoke the scientific temperament. A year ago, we rolled out our 10 millionth truck/bus radial tyre from our plant in Mysore, becoming the first company in India to do so. Today, it gives me immense joy to say that with this Centre we have added to the list of the many firsts for JK Tyre. 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 Centre, making it one of India's treasured institutions for R&D."

JK Tyre produces over 32 million tyres per annum and the company is rapidly expanding its operations and manufacturing facilities to accommodate the exponential growth in India and globally. JK says its new R&D facility is ready to meet the tyre regulations of the future and has the equipment necessary to develop and test products that meet future norms. The company has also confirmed that it has already earmarked an additional investment of Rs. 50 crore over the next year and a half on purchasing more equipment and machinery. The R&D facility in Mysore is also said to be eco-friendly and is a zero discharge unit.