Goodyear uses RFID tags to track rented tires

JasonYoo

Goodyear uses RFID tags to track rented tires [Copy link]

[Abstract] In the NASCAR race, Goodyear embedded RFID tags on the side of the tire and successfully and dynamically tracked the tire from leaving the warehouse to the hands of the racer until the final return.

A few days ago, the National Association of Auto Racing (NASCAR) held a car race at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Miami. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. (RFID Radio Frequency Express Note: the world's largest tire supplier, selling a total of 2.2 billion tires per year) used RFID to track the rented racecar tires. The tag was embedded on the side of the tire, and Goodyear successfully and dynamically tracked the tire from leaving the warehouse to the hands of the racer until the final return.

Goodyear said they began evaluating RFID in tire tracking in 1984. This included controlling truck inventory and meeting Wal-Mart's requirements for suppliers in RFID applications. Stephen Roth, Goodyear's head of vehicle division, said, "We have conducted extensive field tests, the first test was in 1993, and the tracking of tires at the car race at the Homestead-Miami Speedway in Miami a few days ago was the largest field test and the first application of RFID to track racecar tires."

"The results are very satisfying," Roth said. "Everyone put in a lot of effort with Goodyear's support."

Most of the tires used in the races held by the National Automobile Racing Association come from Goodyear. Every year, Goodyear ( RFID Radio Frequency Express? Note) provides about 200,000 tires to racers. In the past, racers had no choice but to buy tires. Each team often had to buy multiple types of tires in a race, and the price of tires was too high for many potential racers. NASCAR proposed to Goodyear to rent tires to racers who could not afford to buy tires. For those racers with strong supporters and more team members, they can buy tires.

In this year's Craftsman Truck Series, Goodyear used its own EPC Class 1 UHF 915 MHz passive tags to track tires. Before the tires were rented to the racers, Goodyear used a handheld reader to scan the tags on the tires. The tag serial number was entered into the tire information database along with the racer and car information. After the race, Goodyear scanned the tires returned by the racers or teams again. Roth said that in this competition, Goodyear rented out about 400 tires and successfully scanned their information before and after the race. No tires were lost after the race, and the racers returned them to the rental office in full.

Goodyear plans to use RFID tire tracking systems in NASCAR competitions in 2006, hoping to use RFID for inventory tracking to ensure that racers return the tires they rented instead of other tires after the race. Roth said that Goodyear used barcodes attached to the side of the tires for racecar tire inventory management before, but found that the barcodes were easy to fall off.

Goodyear plans to further improve the system and eventually ensure that NASCAR staff can scan tire information through handheld readers during pre-race technical inspections. Before the race, NASCAR staff will conduct technical inspections on tires to ensure that the tires are of qualified quality. Goodyear expects that NASCAR staff can use readers to ensure that the quality of the tires installed on each car is reliable, ensuring fair competition among racers on different tracks.

Source: RFID Radio Frequency Express