EMU: Dial Up Signals From Sensors To See What Your Tires Are Doing
img src="/sites/default/files/images/articles/printeditiontag_new.gif" width=120 align=right>Managing tire wear is going high tech. The rubber on the pavement is typically a fleet’s first- or second-largest maintenance cost, and proper inflation is considered essential to getting the most life out of truck tires. But keeping tire pressures within tolerances is one of the most vexing jobs in maintenance.
Suppliers are adapting available technology to overcome some of the human shortcomings in managing tire wear and, they hope, usher in the era of the “smart” tire. On the mechanical side, automatic tire inflation systems built into trailer wheels are already on the market. And now, radio frequency identification (RFID) — the same wireless technology that shippers rely on to track movement of their goods — is finding a role in monitoring the condition of truck tires
Several manufacturers are placing computer chips on individual tires that read and report air pressure and tire temperature. The data are retrieved with a short-range radio receiver.
