Trimble has introduced the Trimble® TirePulse™ tyre monitoring system to assist in reducing maintenance costs, increasing overall fleet productivity and promoting site safety. Part of the Trimble Connected Site® portfolio, the advanced machine monitoring solution wirelessly reports tyre temperature and pressure data from the jobsite to the VisionLink® fleet, asset and site productivity management solution from Trimble. Automatic, real-time tyre pressure and high-temperature alerts help schedule cost-effective preventative tyre maintenance, extend the life of tyres, increase fuel efficiency and avoid dangerous blowouts.
Under-inflated tyres can reduce fuel economy, increase overheating, tread wear and blowouts that take a machine out of production. Together, these factors can significantly affect fleet productivity and operating costs.
Trimble TirePulse can improve tyre life while also reducing the need to visually inspect inflation, tyre wear and temperature. Using a Trimble TP920 Industrial Tire Sensor in the tyre valve stem and a Trimble SNM940 Connected Site Gateway for communications, the information is automatically relayed back to the office for analysis by managers. Accurate data is communicated through VisionLink, so managers can proactively manage tyre maintenance on more machines across sites. Better preventative maintenance can result in improved fleet costs.
The TirePulse system also promotes increased jobsite safety by reducing the risk of tyre blowout and injury to workers. Properly inflated tyres improve the performance of vehicle braking systems and allow a faster response time in potentially dangerous conditions. The system is also safer and more accurate than manual visual inspection because it does not require personnel to be in close proximity to overheated tyres on heavy machinery.
VisionLink automatically alerts site supervisors when a tyre experiences a 20% drop in pressure and becomes a potential hazard. It can also provide a high-temperature alert to indicate that jobsite conditions are likely to accelerate tyre breakdown.
“Preventative maintenance is more cost effective than a machine going down suddenly with a blown tyre. But with equipment moving around so much from site to site, fleet managers struggle to stay ahead of the game,” said Julian Dann, Business Area Director for Machine Control. “TirePulse is priced for installation across the entire fleet of on- and off-road machine tyres, regardless of make, model or manufacturer. Increased wear or breakdown can be reported and acted upon proactively. The system can often pay for itself by preventing just one blowout.”