BKT: Global leaders through innovation

March 11, 2015 10:38 am

 BKT has completed 25 years as one of the global leaders with presence in the off-highway tyres segment. Today, BKT enjoys its presence in more than 130 countries around the world. It becomes a preferred supplier to international OEMs in industrial, construction and agricultural tyre segments, and has grown since its inception in 1988 to become an industrial conglomerate exporting an extensive range of off-highway solutions across the world.
Made at BKTQuality conscious users who adhere to stringent conformity standards across the world prefer BKT as their supplier. Talking on the quality control of its tyres, Rajiv Poddar, Joint Managing Director, BKT said, “Today BKT products are known for their reliability and have the lowest claim ratio in the industry. Each of our products passes over 450 stages of tests.”
The company has products from 5-inch rim diameter to 54-inch rim diameter for vehicles ranging from trailers, forklifts, etc. to technologically advanced machines like high horsepower tractors, combines, harvesters, GPS controlled vehicles, articulated dump trucks, high-speed cranes, sophisticated port vehicles and container handlers, etc.
One stop shop for mining and industryBKT ventured into the production of all steel radials in 2008 being the first tyre company in India to produce all-steel radial OTR tyres. All steel radial plants at Bhuj in Gujarat and Chopanki in Rajasthan are now functioning on full throttle producing top of the line radial tyres for OTR vehicles ranging from rigid dump trucks to snow manoeuvring vehicles.
R&D department at BKT has developed tyres that can encounter the toughest and the most hostile terrains faced during mining and industrial activities. The tyres under this segment range from a 20-inch diameter tipper truck size to a giant 51-inch rigid dump truck size, in both radial and bias make, thus covering every requirement in industrial use and mining.
New solutions for the new worldIn sync with the growing and changing demands, BKT makes significant investment in new product development. Discussing the company’s efforts in this area, Dilip Vaidya, Director and President- Technology, says, “In addition to BKT’s state of the art factories, we also possess an in-house mould design and a production plant which enables us to achieve production flexibility and frequent changeover in production cycles as per demand.”
Bhuj plant to boost BKT’s productivityThe manufacturing plant in Bhuj, Gujarat is the 4th manufacturing unit set up by BKT in India. The project complex comprises of about 300 acres of land located in the Gujarat region close to Mundra. The region makes it easy to transport raw materials, mainly imported, along with the export of containerised tyres. The site foresees a large warehouse with a land of about 15 acres dedicated exclusively to R&D. The testing facility at the plant is equipped with indoor and outdoor testing areas for the products with a special testing track constructed for test runs and on field tests for the tyres.
The BKT Bhuj plant is a greenfield project focused on developing a range of radial and bias tyres. This facility will also produce ultra-large and giant OTR tyres to 51-inch rim diameter.