SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 6, 2013—Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) introduced today the Trimble® TirePulse™ Tire Monitoring System to assist fleet managers in reducing maintenance costs, increasing overall fleet productivity and promoting site safety. Part of the Trimble Connected Site® portfolio, the advanced machine monitoring solution wirelessly reports tire temperature and pressure data from the jobsite to the VisionLink® fleet, asset and site productivity management solution from Trimble. Automatic, real-time tire pressure and high-temperature alerts help fleet managers and site supervisors schedule cost-effective preventative tire maintenance, extend the life of tires, increase fuel efficiency and avoid dangerous blowouts.
TirePulse Lowers Fleet Costs
Under-inflated tires can reduce fuel economy, increase overheating, tread wear and blowouts that take a machine out of production. Together, these factors can significantly affect fleet productivity and operating costs.
Trimble TirePulse can improve tire life while also reducing the need for fleet managers to drive to the site and visually inspect inflation, tire wear and temperature. Using a Trimble TP920 Industrial Tire Sensor in the tire valve stem and a Trimble SNM940 Connected Site Gateway for communications, the information is automatically relayed back to the office for analysis by the fleet manager. Accurate data is communicated through VisionLink, so the fleet manager can proactively manage tire maintenance on more machines across construction sites. Better preventative maintenance can result in improved fleet costs.
Emailed Alerts Promote Increased Jobsite Safety
The Trimble TirePulse system also promotes increased jobsite safety by reducing the risk of tire blowout and injury to workers. Properly inflated tires improve the performance of vehicle braking systems and allow a faster response time in potentially dangerous conditions. The system is also safer and more accurate than manual visual inspection because it does not require personnel to be in close proximity to overheated tires on heavy machinery.
VisionLink automatically alerts the fleet manager or site foreman when a tire experiences a 20 percent drop in pressure and becomes a potential hazard. It can also provide a high-temperature alert to indicate that jobsite conditions are likely to accelerate tire breakdown.
Deploy Across the Entire Fleet
“Preventative maintenance is more cost effective than a machine going down suddenly with a blown tire. But with equipment moving around so much from site to site, fleet managers struggle to stay ahead of the game,” said Julian Dann, business area director for machine control. “TirePulse is priced for installation across the entire fleet of on- and off-road machine tires, regardless of make, model or manufacturer. Increased wear or breakdown can be reported and acted upon proactively. The system can often pay for itself by preventing just one blowout.”
Availability
VisionLink version 2.8 and the new Trimble TirePulse Tire Monitoring System are currently available through the Trimble SITECH® Technology Dealer Channel in North America.
About Trimble’s Heavy Civil Construction Division
Trimble’s Heavy Civil Construction Division is a leading innovator of productivity solutions for the heavy and highway contractor. Trimble’s solutions leverage a variety of technologies, including Global Positioning System (GPS), construction lasers, total stations, wireless data communications, the Internet and application software. As part of the Trimble Connected Site strategy, these solutions provide a high-level of process and workflow integration from the design phase through to the finished project—delivering significant improvements in productivity throughout the construction lifecycle.