FASEP is integrating a RFID reader into a wheel balancer, and working with Michelin Group, in an effort to trace both the life and the service record of individual tires.
FASEP, a maker of wheel balancers, tire changers and alignment equipment, is demonstrating its creation at the Automotive Aftermarket Products Expo (AAPEX) in a booth it shares with Michelin as well as ATEQ TPMS Tools LC.
Fabio Boni, sales director for the equipment manufacturer, says an antenna on the wheel balancer reads the tire identification information from the RFID tag inside the tire.
That would allow for the tracking of the tire’s wear and full lifecycle, but also a complete record of how and when it was serviced. Michelin’s former CEO Alexis Garcin told MTD in 2023 that all of Michelin’s tires would be outfitted with RFID by 2024.
“We would know from factory to the end what is going on” with the tire, Boni says, and that would “be good for the tire manufacturer, for tire shops and the tire’s owner.”
The machine is a prototype for now, but Boni says FASEP is in discussions with Michelin to install one in the tiremaker’s research center in South Carolina.
Boni says the company is working with a consortium of tiremakers on RFID, including Michelin, Continental AG, Pirelli & Cie SpA and Bridgestone Corp.
