Canadian tire company Camso has entered into an agreement to pilot radio frequency identification technology as a potential solution for improving the servicing of forklift tires. The pilot involves building UHF RFID tags directly into its solid-rubber forklift tires. In the long term, Camso reports, the company is interested in knowing whether RFID could enable better service for its customers.
Based on the pilot’s success, the company plans to commercialize the RFID solution in cooperation with technology provider Ferm RFID Solutions, a division of FineLine Technologies. FineLine acquired Netherland-based Ferm RFID, which offers RFID solutions for automotive and aviation tires, in January 2018.
Camso’s RFID pilot involves embedding RFID tags, known as plugs, into the rubber of solid tires designed for use with a variety of forklifts. The firm is investigating what types of solutions it could implement to help reduce the operating costs of forklift fleet operation, says Derek Bradeen, Camso’s brand, communications and global marketing executive director. Camso is among the world’s largest manufacturers of solid and air-filled forklift tires, as well as other off-road mobility products. The company focuses not only on making quality products, but also on how those products perform for customers over time, based on how they are used and maintained.
Camso’s services include solutions for maintaining tires for its customers in warehouses and at other locations. According to Bradeen, the firm’s engineers focus on how to manage and enhance a tire’s lifespan, based on many variables that include heat generation and wear and tear. As part of this effort, he says, the company constantly investigates ways in which technology can improve the performance of its products. “Smart technology is a vehicle to bring more value to the customer,” he states.
With RFID technology, the company hopes to learn whether the built-in tag could enable it to track tire status over time, including how tires are used, and under what conditions. In so doing, Bradeen explains, the firm could not only modify its servicing (such as scheduling maintenance visits based on wear-and-tear forecasts for each tire), but also identify the right tire for specific applications. For instance, Bradeen says, some users may need to operate tires more often or at higher speeds for different duty cycles and on multiple types of surfaces. All of these factors, he notes, could impact a tire’s performance and lifespan.
FineLine’s Ferm RFID acquisition helps the company to accomplish its strategy of providing RFID-enabled tire solutions to the automotive and aviation industries, says George Hoffman, FineLine’s chairman and CEO. In addition, the firm purchased “hard-to-tag” solutions company Data2 in October 2017, expanding its portfolio of jewelry and tire labels.
FineLine has assumed leadership of the technology development for the plug project, providing ruggedized tags built to be inserted into a solid rubber tire during manufacture. “We needed something that is an integrated part of the tire,” he states, in order to accomplish that function. That means the tag must be able to withstand vulcanization, which involves high temperature and pressure levels.
FineLine says it is currently in conversations with approximately 10 major companies, including tire wholesalers, fleet managers and manufacturers, to provide them with RFID technology. Hoffman cites multiple benefits that the technology is expected to provide, such as boosting manufacturing efficiency by tracking tires as they are built, as well as reducing the waste of tires and rubber that may take place without automatic visibility into the location and status of each tire as it is built.
FineLine Technologies’ tire-based solutions, following its recent acquisitions, include RFID tread labels to trace individual tires from the warehouse to the point of sale, along with RFID vulcanizing labels to monitor individual tires throughout the production process. Its solutions include systems to support mold management, and track and trace materials, as well as for use in tire-building machines.
FineLine produces hundreds of millions of tags and labels annually, Hoffman says, delivering products in fewer than five days. Its Data2 and Ferm RFID divisions have expanded the company’s capabilities into not only tires, he adds, but also jewelry and health care.