The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will begin testing its air maintenance technology (AMT) – a system that utilizes peristaltic pump technology to automatically maintain tire pressure at fleets’ desired levels – on North American trucking fleets, as part of a research project supported with a $1.5 million grant by the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Vehicle Technology.
Goodyear has been developing and testing its AMT since 2011. In this next phase of testing, multiple U.S. and Canada-based trucking fleets will test AMT during the next 18 months in their normal daily operations.
“This is an important milestone in the development of AMT for the commercial trucking marketplace,” said Joseph Zekoski, Goodyear’s chief technical officer. “The tires equipped with AMT have performed well in testing, and we are pleased that so many of our fleet customers were eager to collaborate with us in the next phase of testing.”
AMT enables tires to remain inflated at a specified cold inflation pressure without the need for any external pumps or electronics. All components of the AMT system, including the pump, are fully contained within the tire, according to Goodyear.
