UBC and Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group have formed a research partnership that will allow the two organizations to collaborate in developing technology and innovative solutions for the mining tire industry. In the memorandum of understanding, both parties agree to pursue a research and innovation partnership that matches expertise from the UBC Schoolof Engineering in the Okanagan with the innovation goals of Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group. “We wanted to harness the knowledge and ideas of our team members to advance innovation, and through this partnership with UBC, we now have access to the skills, knowledge and facilities that we didn’t have prior,” says Dan Allan, senior vice-president, Kal Tire Mining Tire Group. “Research like this fuels the innovation that takes great ideas forward.” The MOU lays out an initial three-year term of collaboration on mutually beneficial areas of research, aswell as Kal Tire’s significant investment in the partnership. Individual researchers will submit project ideas that include everything from robotics and metallurgical design to environmentally responsible ways to use recycled tire crumb.
“We see this partnership as another key step in our goal of helping to advance economic development opportunities in our region,” says Deborah Buszard, deputy vice-chancellor and principal of UBC’s Okanagan campus.
UBC School of Engineering Associate Professor Lukas Bichler founded the metalcasting laboratory for advancement of magnesium and aluminum alloys, which researches the characterization and modification of materials and their properties via advanced techniques, as well as produces novel grain refiners and in-situ composites for Al and Mg-based alloy systems.