Julien Destraves, Michelin‘s RFID system designer, and Antonio Rrizzi, a University of Parma professor of industrial logistics and supply chain management, will discuss RFID’s use in tires at RFID Journal LIVE! 2023. The event will feature end-user companies discussing the technology’s deployment in various industries, including automotive, as well as exhibitors offering tagging solutions for multiple applications.
Tire manufacturers are piloting and deploying radio frequency identification (RFID) technology as part of a global initiative to track every individual tire from the point of manufacture to disposal. The potential for the RFID market is significant if the expected transition occurs, and most tires already contain embedded RFID tags so that they can be uniquely identified. The tire industry is currently rolling out millions of tires annually for the vehicles that transport people and freight, as well as those that conduct farming and construction work around the globe. rfid uhf reader inventory
Commercial and passenger tire volumes average approximately 2.3 billion units each year. Around 60 percent are built for the aftermarket to replace existing tires, while 20 percent are for new vehicles and the rest are for new retreading. Tires present unique challenges, as they are relatively high in cost—a set of passenger car tires can average $1,500 or more—and are critical for the safety of those operating or around vehicles. Each tire currently does not have a tag, and tracking tires has traditionally required barcode scans or visual readings, as well as the transcribing of part numbers and related attributes, such as manufacturer, size, and where and when each tire was built.
The number of UHF RFID tags being used to individually identify products around the world is presently about 35 billion. But if all tires were tagged with RFID, tire tags alone could raise overall RFID tag sales by 5 percent above the current market, according to Antonio Rizzi, a professor of industrial logistics and supply chain management at the University of Parma. The opportunities for tagging such high-volume products, he says, serves as a reminder that RFID is still in its infancy when it comes to adoption. “There are many industries that still have the potential to deploy [RFID],” he states, “and they can definitely change the size of the RFID industry. The tire is one of these industries, and one of the most promising ones.”
Early-adopter tire manufacturers, such as Michelin and Bridgestone, are either testing the technology or are beginning the tagging phase, but the sharing of data throughout the complex tire supply chain has posed a challenge until recently, Rizzi reports. To enable access to tire data between manufacturers, many of the largest companies in the industry created a non-profit organization in January 2022 called the Global Data Service Organization for Tires and Automotive Components (GDSO).
The GDSO has been working to standardize data related to tires, and to define the avenues for accessing and exchanging information. The organization’s Tire Data Management (TDS) information service has been designed so that those reading tire tags can retrieve data associated to each tire’s unique serialized global trade item number (SGTIN-96). When a reader interrogates a tag, the system is automatically connected to the information service, which identifies the tire company’s Web address.
Collecting tire information can be a nightmare, one that RFID is poised to address.
At the same time, the service supplies a token to the user application, based on the tire’s user profile. The user application is redirected to the tire company’s Web service, where the individual can provide user rights and the token for secure data access. If authorized to do so, the user can then visit the tire company’s secure data-access location to learn more about the tire’s attributes—for instance, its size or type.
This feature is important in a managed “many-to-many” supply chain, Rizzi says, in which multiple stakeholders are involved. The solution can be made accessible via standard application programming interfaces offered by GDSO, to require authentication with security and authorization before a user can access information. The system is managed so that users have access only to the data relevant to them. In that way, individuals can read tags for a wide variety of use cases.
RFID can make tire data collection more efficient.
There are two main distribution channels for tires, Rizzi says, both of which have participants who could benefit from RFID tags. One channel involves car manufacturers. Automotive companies are tagging numerous parts, and they can benefit from reading those tags as part of their work-in-progress (WIP). Such businesses could also read the tags as tires (or vehicles with those tires installed) are transported or repaired. For WIP, the companies can read the built-in tags to confirm the right tires are being installed on each new vehicle throughout the production lines, and to create a proper association between tires.
The other channel in which new tires end up involves traditional distributor or dealer environments, to be sold directly to vehicle owners. Companies selling those tires to consumers, Rizzi says, “have huge challenges in managing inventory.” Often, they may receive hundreds of tires that look the same but comprise many different types and sizes, with unique attributes. In the past, he notes, the only way to manage tire identification was by reading paper labels attached to tires, but such labels can be knocked off or torn, and they don’t last beyond the sale. At the same time, he notes linking the maintenance and usage data with individual tires is a demand in the market.
There is still work ahead to ensure RFID can be integrated into tires, Rizzi reports, and that the tags will operate as required, although the testing has already led to some successes. The University of Parma’s RFID Lab is working with Michelin and supporting RFID tag manufacturer Murata to test the applications and use cases for RFID tags. One early challenge for both the tire and RFID industries was to determine how to design and embed a tag into a tire in such a way that it would be able to withstand heat during production, as well as the stresses related to use on the road.
Specialized tags are being built into the sidewalls of tires, where they can more readily be read via an RFID reader, and so they will be exposed to less wear and tear. The materials built into tires create another challenge, Rizzi says. “There are lots of blocking materials like metals,” he explains, “but also rubber has an attenuation effect on the RF signal.”
Rubber and some metals can reduce reading distance. Current RFID tag deployments have achieved a minimum read range of approximately 30 centimeters (11.8 inches), up to a couple of meters, depending on the types of readers or antennas used, in addition to the power level. Long read ranges are not as critical for the tire industry as they might be for retail apparel, however. Usually, a pile of tires is read in amounts of five or six, as opposed to a pallet load of boxes filled with hundreds of apparel items.
In addition to Murata, other RFID companies are building tags for the tire market, including Hana RFID, which offers a tire tag, and Avery Dennison, with its Maxdura Tire Tag. Many tire-based tags are laminated between two layers of rubber for protection before being embedded into tires. They can thus withstand intense heating and curing cycles during production. Design work for tire tags also focuses on ensuring the tags can be removed at the point of recycling, so that the technology would not impact the recycling process.
anti metal rfid 1 Rizzi predicts the benefits of RFID for tire management are likely to drive deployments forward in the coming years. “There are so many use cases, so many players in the supply chain that could definitely benefit from this technology,” he states. “That’s the reason why this industry is leading steam ahead.”