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Kumho began to apply RFID technology to all of its tires made in South Korea; at the same time, Michelin claimed to open up its 40 RFID-related patents to accelerate the application of RFID technology in the tire industry.
Beginning next year, South Korea’s Kumho will install passive UHF tags that meet the EPC Gen 2 standard on its 3.5 million tires per year. The installation of UHF tags is mainly used to realize the full tracking of tires in processing plants, supply chains, retail stores, and consumers (mainly fleets).
Kumho cooperated with Asiana IDT to develop a slender UHF special tag that can withstand high temperature and high pressure installed in the inner tube. At the end of this year, Kumho expects that 1.4 million tires will be fitted with this type of label. Starting in 2014, 3.5 million new tires will be equipped with RFID tags each year. Through the installation and application of RFID, the company expects to reduce the cost of losses due to 900 million US dollars, the latter mainly due to operating errors, batch confusion, handling customer complaints, etc.
Distributors and customers of Kumho tires can realize tire inventory and supply chain management through RFID tags, as well as track and monitor the life cycle and durability of a specific tire.
A few years ago, Kumho began researching technological solutions that could improve the efficiency of inventory management. Through the test comparison of bar code and RFID tag, it is found that the RFID tag has excellent performance in the tire production environment, and the RFID tag can store sensor data such as temperature and pressure. In the end, the company decided to develop low-cost RFID tags.
Kumho has installed web-based RFID software to track tires in its processing plants; the company plans to establish a web service platform for consumers to inquire about logistics information, product quality and other information. Fleet managers and other users can submit their driving information to the platform to form a record of the entire tire management process.
Kumho is not the only company that uses RFID technology to track tires. Last year, some London buses adopted Michelin RFID-tagged tires to improve bus safety and management efficiency. Michelin claims that it will open up the right to use its 40 RFID-related patents, and the relevant content complies with AIAG B11, JAIF B21, ISO-17367, TMC RP 247, GS1-EPC TDS 1.5 and other standards. Among them, the UHF tags used in the AIAG B11 standard must comply with the ISO 18000-6C and EPC Gen 2 standards, as well as the type of data stored and the storage method. The ISO 17367 standard describes the processing of UHF RFID tags.
Michelin’s free opening of patents can accelerate the application of RFID technology in the tire industry. Michelin’s RFID patents mainly involve tracking the production, processing, storage, and supply processes of tires, as well as the use of sensors. The main patents issued by Michelin include US patent 20080289736 for “Manufacturing Process of Tire with Embedded Electronic Tag”, “Optimal Position of Electronic Tag in Rubber Tire” 20080289736 and so on. Michelin claims that in order to expand the application of RFID technology, it is considering opening any related patents that may hinder the application of RFID.
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