GACWheels Mining is the developer and commercial supplier of the Air Suspension Wheel (ASW) — a non-pneumatic, steel wheel system that replaces the conventional OTR tyre for heavy mining equipment. Founded on the premise that the pneumatic tyre is the single largest, most disruptive cost in mining operations — and that its failure modes are architectural, not inevitable.
"To remove the blowout, the downtime, the CAPEX, and the disposal burden of conventional mining tyres — permanently — through better engineering."
Pneumatic OTR tyres are a major consumable and maintenance cost in many mining operations, and tyre-related events can be a significant contributor to unplanned downtime and safety exposure.
The mining industry had not solved the problem — it had learned to manage it. TPMS monitoring, tyre handler training, exclusion zones, tyre rotation programmes, stock buffers. All responses to a structural problem in the technology itself.
GACWheels was founded on a different premise: the failure modes of the conventional pneumatic OTR tyre are architectural. The solution is not better management of a flawed design — it is a better design. The Air Suspension Wheel is that design.
GACWheels holds 120+ issued patents across the ASW system — covering wheel architecture, the air cylinder and damper suspension system, tread segment design and attachment, and the Wheels-as-a-Service commercial model. The patent portfolio represents over a decade of proprietary engineering development and protects the full technology and commercial stack against imitation.
Third-party validation of the ASW technology across industry media, mainstream financial press, and invention recognition programmes.
GACWheels is led by the team that developed, tested, and commercialised the Air Suspension Wheel from first prototype to Tier 1 mining deployment.
Darryl Crowder leads the commercialisation and operational rollout of GACWheels Mining Globally, including customer engagement, governance, commercial readiness, and the development of the Wheels-as-a-Service operating model for mining customers.
Rodrigo Pinheiro leads the ASW engineering development programme, bringing deep experience in mechanical design, non-pneumatic wheel architecture, and the long-term field validation of the Air Suspension Wheel system.
Harmen van Kamp as co-founder of the GACW Inc business he has been leading the vision behind the development of the Air Suspension Wheel system from conception.