RFID is transforming the tire industry

Major tire producers are investigating new technologies to support their internal production processes and to gather more data per process step for individual tires. During the last 10 years, RFID has emerged as the answer to the industry’s problem. It is a technology which will rapidly change the tire industry by supporting improvement of the overall quality of individual tires.

Furthermore, large volumes of data will be gathered to support decisions with better intelligence. RFID is the booster for the “Industry 4.0 Development.”

An RFID chip, or tag, is a equipped with an antenna. This antenna mostly is applied on a carrier such as a PET, polypropylene, paper or, in case of tires, sometimes rubber or dipped mesh materials. The ultra-high frequency class one Gen2 has been certified as the world standard for passive (without a battery) RFID tags.

A comprehensive RFID solution always contains the RFID tag, software and a handheld or stationary reader including antennas. When a tag passes the reading field of an antenna, it reads the tag and sends the unique identification number back to the system. This can be a speedy process with up to 300 of these identifications per second.

In comparison to identification by bar codes there are a range of benefits. There is no line-of-sight needed between the reader and the tag. Identification can occur in bulk, up to 150 tires in one scan. And the distance from which RFID tags can be read is more flexible than for bar codes, from zero up to several feet.

The tire industry recognizes these benefits and several solutions based on RFID technology have been defined in the past few years.

Lifecycle

The use of vulcanizable RFID tags on each tire controls the complete lifecycle of the tire from building machine, vulcanization, coupling with the end-user and finally through to the scrapping of the used tire.

Customized RFID aftermarket labels have been developed to support fleet-management, set up anti-theft solutions and to develop pay-per-mile, pay-per-use or other new commercial business models. By creating a slot in a new or existing tire even small tire companies, such as retreaders and repair shops, can offer local fleets new business models.

RFID tread labels give the opportunity to address logistics challenges such as first-in, first-out, identifying unique/individual tires in the warehouse, inventory management, automatic coupling for orders, loading the trucks (proof-of-delivery) up to inventory in the shop, identifying gray imports, matching a tire to an end-user, and easily support the recall process.

Industry 4.0, new business models, end-user data and a need for full transparency are among the triggers for developing an RFID strategy. As the original equipment market demands full transparency into the production logistics and overall product quality, test reports and good tires at a low price are no longer enough.

RFID also helps with regulatory compliance. Within the United Arab Emirates, current law requires individual tire production data be directly associated with a car and therefore, an end-user. This can be achieved by bar code or QR code, but certainly more easily with RFID. These regulations are expected to be implemented within a number of other regions.

Distributors and fleet owners are recognizing more and more the value of RFID to support their processes. Soon distributors will demand tire producers apply a customized RFID tread label. And fleet owners will ask for customized, embedded RFID tags.

To support these processes, demands, and concepts, the tire mold and/or material carrier needs an RFID identifier This can be difficult given a harsh environment like the tire industry.

The tag, for each purpose, needs to endure environmental stresses including steam, heat, steel and use. Leading RFID technology companies, such as FineLine Technologies, are investing and developing RFID tag solutions that are thoroughly tested and specialized for these purposes.