Michelin Steers RFID Tire Tagging Ahead with Gen 4

Published: August 1, 2024
  • The tire company and Murata have signed an agreement to manufacture the latest, most economical and sustainable tag designed for tires.
  • The Gen 4 tag is built to be flexible, embedded directly into all styles and types of tires with performance to last the life of the tire.

Global tire company Michelin has been researching, designing and testing RFID tags in its tire products for years to create what it calls a connected tire that communicates to those with RFID readers.

Most recently, with electronics company Murata, is proceeding on its fourth-generation tag that comes with a 37 millimeter long coil antenna and runs horizontally across the tire sidewall. It doesn’t require an adhesive, is more flexible than its predecessors, and can be recycled with the tire.

In May, Murata entered a licensing agreement with Michelin to integrate this Gen 4 version tag into the company’s tires. Mass production of the tags is slated for January 2025, and it will be available to other tire manufacturers as well. The latest tag is designed to be low cost, versatile and more sustainable. The tag is composed of a single spring antenna with improved capacity to absorb mechanical stress.

Michelin Leads RFID Tire Rollout

Michelin has been building passive, UHF RAIN RFID technology into its tires—around 50 million so far—beginning with light and heavy trucks as well as buses. The company is now targeting the tires used for passenger cars, worldwide, said Laurent Couturier, Michelin’s RFID system designer. That will mean tagging 100 million tires.

The company is part of a global and tire industry-wide rollout of RFID technology to uniquely identify each tire as it is produced and shipped to retailers, but also as it is used, recycled or disposed of. The technology becomes more imperative in the coming years as the Digital Product Passport (DPP) requirements of the EU place a mandate on unique identification of tires sold and used in Europe.

Previous versions of RFID tags Michelin have been built into the rubber layers of tires and provide high quality read functionality, company officials said. However, the latest version has a more flexible antenna, making it more robust during a tire’s life on the road, and it does not require the Chemloc adhesive coating to affix it to the rubber of the tire that previous versions employed.

Newly Engineered Tag

Generation 4 refers not only to the new tag design but the embedding solution. One key feature is the tag’s ability to withstand mechanical constraints or pressure over the lifetime of the tire, while maintaining the same electromagnetic performance.

The tag is embedded horizontally within the rubber layers of the tire, so that the movement and mechanical constraints of the tire on the road has the least impact on the structure of the chip and antenna. And the latest, coiled, helical antenna is more flexible than previous versions, to twist and bend to absorb mechanical and thermal stress put on that tire.

The lighter-weight antenna, and lack of adhesive, makes it less expensive as well as easier to embed, said Couturier. “The integration inside the tire is much easier,” he said, and the flexibility enables the antenna to twist and bed to absorb both mechanical and thermal stress.

“So the latest tag is designed to be much more compliant with the behavior of the tire,” Couturier said.

Because the tag is smaller than previous tags and composed of the same material as the tire itself, it is compatible with the recycling process of the tire.

Industry-wide Efforts to Deploy RFID

Michelin sees its tire-making competitors as collaborators when it comes to RFID technology development and deployment. In fact, the effort to make RFID tags available and universal across all companies serves to benefit the entire industry, the company reported.

“Michelin has a very open attitude [to help] the entire industry go in the same direction,” when it comes to tire connectivity, said Couturier.

Part of that effort focuses not only on the unique physical challenges for RFID tags in tires, but data storage and management. One example is industry association Global Data Service Organization’s (GDSO’s) development of an information service enabling users to retrieve data associated to each tire’s unique ID (the serial number format – SGTIN96).

The group’s—and Michelin’s—long term goal is for digitization of the tire industry, which will allow new services based on connected tires from different companies. The process is well on its way as more than 50 million tires are currently equipped with UHF RAIN RFID tags.

Michelin is also working with Beontag and Hana RFID to produce more tire-specified RFID tags to support the demand that is coming.  These agreements allow tire companies to employ the same Generation 4 tires into their own products.

Robust Read Performance

The Gen 4 tire tags are intended to be readable even when the tire is moving or rolling, and to withstand weather conditions and aging. Unlike RFID tags used in many industries, such as retail, the tire tag is embedded in the product: it cannot be removed or replaced, which means long term, reliable performance is essential.

And it must be able to sustain not only the driving of the tire, but processes such as retreading and even recycling.

The tag is designed to work well in any type of tire, from large, thick tires used in heavy machinery, to small passenger vehicle products. Tag read range may vary based on the thickness of the rubber tire, and the sensitivity of the RFID reader. However, on average, the tags can be read at distances from two or three to five meters.

“We have focused on a way to create one tag that works with any tire,” said Couturier, “to have a smooth homogeneous behavior in the different types of tires.”

How RFID is Used

Commonly, RFID tags are initially used by tire companies for management of preventative maintenance to help track the times a tire is retreaded, how old it is, and other features that may affect its remaining lifespan.

With a handheld RFID reader, other companies in the tire’s supply chain and beyond can access data. For instance, retailers can gain access to data about the tires. Fleet managers can track the usage and condition of the tires used on their trucks or vans.

In the long run, data related to the tire could be used in the recycling process to ensure the tires are properly re-built or discarded according to their history.

Transformation is Happening Now

While Michelin has been planning the RFID-enabled connectivity of its tires for years, the actual deployment is well on its way, said Couturier. In Europe the DPP’s efforts begin with some key product groups which include textiles, batteries and tires.

in the meantime, the engineering of the tag itself continues at Michelin, said Couturier. “We always continue to do research and improvement of the product — this is the DNA of Michelin,” he said. Other tire manufacturers are similarly testing the tags in their own products.

The RAIN Alliance is working with the industry, offering Tires Masterclass events annually. This year the event will be held Nov 6 in Las Vegas at the Automotive Aftermarket Product Expo (AAPEX) show, to help RAIN Alliance members and the ecosystem learn about the technology used in tires. Training is open to any companies. Training has previously taken place in Europe and Asia.

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About the Author: Claire Swedberg