Smart Tyre Technology

In an upfront conversation, V.K. Misra, Technical Director, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd. spoke to Sumesh Soman on the tyre technology to watch out for.

- Sumesh Soman

Q. How different are car radial sensors from truck and bus radials?

A. Only the sensor size is smaller in the former. For trucks and cars, where the sensor size is similar, the mounting arrangements are different. Elements are different too, for example, how the sensor is fitted on the tyre is different while the technology in principle remains the same.

Q. What is Fuel Saver technology?

A. We came up with the concept of ‘Fuel Saver’ owing to the pressure on rolling resistance. Primarily, we came up with the fuel saver technology for a commercial vehicle. The biggest cost for any commercial operator is fuel. So, if you can give somebody the benefit of fuel-saving, and if you can demonstrate and prove it, then people are willing to adopt and buy the product. Since we’ve come up with this product we reduced the Runflat System Component (RSC) to an extent along with some other changes in the product. Changes in the design, the construction, the material, and the compounds brought down the fuel consumption to about eight per cent. And, and it was humongous, we are still doing some more work on bringing this technology. So far, we’ve brought this technology into two TBR categories of products, particularly in 20-inch size tyres. We’ve also introduced this into tubeless TBS.