Tire Profiles Inc. is advertising its TAC-Scan tire diagnostics tool as "the world's first tire tread diagnostic tool without the human element." The device is on display at this week's Specialty Equipment Market Association Show.
TAC-Scan is engineered to monitor tread conditions, trend tread wear, identify out-of-spec tires and recommend suspension alignment improvements.
The lightweight, portable, battery-powered tool -- which has both passenger/light truck and medium truck tire applications -- provides graphic profile reports of scanned treads, while archiving the collected data. It lets techs scan tires while standing next to vehicles.
TAC-Scan scans tire treads in three to five seconds, delivering accuracy of .1 mm and a resolution of 0.01mm. A stand-alone system, it comes with a compatible interface that uses Bluetooth technology.
"It can scan 200 to 300 tires before its battery needs to be recharged," says Roger Meyer, Tire Profiles' manager of sales and marketing.
"We've had a number of retail merchants who've talked to us" about using TAC-Scan, he adds. With it, "they can put someone to work right away."
