Bridgestone Americas took the opportunity at this week’s MINExpo in Las Vegas to launch its new B-TAG Bridgestone Intelligent Tag, a system that monitors tire pressure and temperature and reports the data in real time, allowing mine operators to "make informed decisions that impact safety, tire performance, maintenance and production."
“Using B-TAG enables productivity gains,” said Kurt Danielson, president of Bridgestone’s commercial tire group. “Manual tire checks on a haul truck can average six minutes a tire. With B-TAG installed, checks take only about one minute per truck. This system allows personnel to minimize downtime and create a safer work environment at the same time.”
B-TAG hardware is installed on the vehicle, the tiremaker said, and data is sent from sensors in the tire to the onboard system in the vehicle, and then may be forwarded to the mine dispatch system, a handheld reader or downloaded directly for analysis.
Mine operators can see data in real time to make immediate decisions, and data can also be compiled to identify pressure trends or assess and adjust operating conditions for more long-term solutions, the tiremaker said.