Michelin introduces truck sensor system

Oct. 11, 2002

Michelin Americas Truck Tires has introduced its eTire System, which provides fleet managers with the real-time information they need "to maintain peak efficiency and minimize costs," according to the company.

"The Michelin eTire System is an integrated system that puts technology to work," says Randy Clark, vice president of marketing for Michelin Americas Truck Tires, a division of Michelin North America Inc. It is designed to make truck sensors viable and beneficial for fleets.

The eTire System was road-tested for more than two years. It incorporates an InTire Sensor, sidewall-mounted SensorDock, hand-held or drive-by reader and BIB TRACK software to accurately capture and instantly report tire pressure, wheel position and maintenance information.

The InTire Sensor can be attached to any brand of truck tire, allowing a fleet to monitor and track all of its tires.

The information gathered is then reported in a fleet-specific manner via an Internet server to enable maintenance managers to track tire costs and to monitor inventories. The BIB TRACK software even can account for retread costs by exchanging information with BIB TREAD, Michelin’s retread management software.

The drive-by readers in the eTire System immediately can differentiate between inner and outer dual tires, then relay information in real time to the fleet manager. Hand-held readers also can read both inner and outer duals easily.

eTire is designed to read the operating temperature inside a tire and correct the pressure reading for "cold equivalent pressure" instead of the expanded pressure occurring after a tire has traveled for a distance and heated up. This results in precise readings and accurate pressure adjustments, as if the tire were cold, according to the company.

All data is in a secure server in the BIB TRACK software, not in the InTire Sensor itself. "This assures that if a tire is lost, stolen or somehow damaged, the information on the tire up to that point is maintained in the database," says Michelin.

The system also allows immediate access and tracking of the information via the Internet, with instant updates as the sensor in each tire is read.