Kenda USA is busy developing products for the North American market at its North American Technical Center (KATC) in Green, Ohio, near Akron.
On June, 20, the tiremaker invited distributors, tire dealers and media to tour the 500,000-square-foot facility.
Following its ribbon cutting ceremony on Nov. 2015, Kenda has significantly developed the tech center with new testing equipment, employees and technologies.
“All of the tools and investments which Kenda is developing will assist us to launch products faster for the Americas that will meet the aggressive business goals set by the corporation.” said Tom Williams, Kenda’s vice president of engineering. “Our proprietary design tools will accelerate our ability to offer cost-effective products to the aftermarket and original equipment markets.”
Tracking the tiremaker to develop its OE business and make North America its No. 2 market, a plan outlined a the Nov. ribbon cutting ceremony, the tech center houses advanced tire modeling and simulation technology to help the center develop its tires for the North America market.
The KATC engineering team has been busy using Kenda’s proprietary in-house tire engineering tools such as KEPLER, KASS and KPAT, that allow the engineers to develop, design and test a tire on the computer before creating the physical tire. With the new tech center technology, Kenda has developed the new Klever H/T2 light truck tire and the Klever S/T with expanded CUV/SUV sizing.
Additionally, a compound lab allows engineers to test compounds used in tires and a tire carving station enables Kenda to have tires carved for research and testing opportunities.
With the new innovations at the tech center, the tiremaker also plans to start moving its OE business beyond spare tires, Kenda told Tire Review.
The KATC is Kenda’s third tech center and only North America center, with two other centers location in Yuanlin, Taiwan and Kunshan, China. As part of the tiremaker’s global capital investments, Kenda also recently broke ground for its new warehouse in Taiwan.
Read more about Kenda’s tech center open house in an upcoming issue of Tire Review.
