Heavy Duty Trucking, February 2018
TIRES WHEELS HDT FEBRUARY 2018 72 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM is driving across at any given time He and his team were skeptical that the data they were receiving allowed them to look at operational data that detailed using wheel end sensors Wolf says But he adds the correlation of the data was extremely good to the point now that he feels it is 98 accurate And he says the potential for fleets is dramatic citing the example of an LTL application where a truck starts a day fully loaded is then partially unloaded and reloaded during the course of a work day Using our wheel sensors we can feed the changing weight distribution data into the trucks architecture as the day progresses to do things like adjust the suspension or brake performance to each wheel to make sure the vehicle stops efficiently every time he explains WHAT ABOUT SMART TIRES PHOTO MICHELIN Todays work on wheel end sensors may one day work hand in hand with a new generation of tires to reshape the very concept of an automotive tire Michelin and Goodyear both recently showed concepts of future tires that will differ greatly in shape and function from tires today using sensors to monitor real time road conditions and 3D printing technology to change the very shape of tire treads while a vehicle is in motion Michelin showed its Visionary Concept tire wheel combination system at the Movin On global sustainability transportation conference in Montreal last June The airless tire made from natural renewable fibers receives information from the vehicle itself as well as external information sources that relay weather road conditions and other operating information When road conditions change winter weather moves in or the vehicle enters mountainous terrain for example the vehicle would pull off the road to a 3D tire printing station which would quickly generate a new set of specialized treads to deal with the new driving conditions Last September Goodyear announced that it was working with Tesloop a new concept mobility company that uses Tesla automobiles to provide a nationwide network of vehicles for business travelers The smart tire design would use tire based sensors to track operational data such as tire pressure and temperature and combine that data with Goodyears proprietary cloud based tire algorithms and related vehicle systems to maximize vehicle efficiency tire life and operating costs Tire makers are looking at completely new concepts in tire design including the use of new materials and the ability to transmit data in real time
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