TIRE SCREENING |
Automated tire safety
Trucks with flat, missing or mismatched tires can be taken
off the road thanks to new safety screening technology
Words | IRD (International Road Dynamics), Canada
Above: IRD’s
Tire Anomaly
and Classification
System – or TACS
– uses tire sensors
to warn of potential
problems on
commercial
vehicles
How safe would you feel
if a 35-ton vehicle with
a flat or missing tire were
hurtling down the road
right next to your family’s car?
Unfortunately, this situation happens
more often than you might think.
Commercial vehicle inspectors
in the US find tire problems that are
severe enough to place trucks out of
service in 2% of their inspections.
With an estimated 130 million trucks
on the road nationwide, there are
potentially millions of trucks with
tire problems that go unnoticed on
the road every day. Unfortunately,
tires have become the most frequent
vehicle-related factor in fatal crashes.
IRD has developed an automated
screening system to help identify
commercial vehicles that have
tire problems and direct them
to inspection facilities. The Tire
142 Intertraffic World | Annual Showcase 2020
Anomaly and Classification System
(TACS) makes use of data from IRD’s
VectorSense tire sensors to identify
vehicles with flat, missing or
mismatched tires. The system works
at highway speeds of up to 160km/h,
but can also be installed in speedrestricted
zones, such as on a weighstation
ramp. There have already
been a number of successful TACS
installations in the US and Europe.
The Illinois Department of
Transportation (IDOT) and the
Illinois State Police (ISP) have
implemented a screening program
using TACS at weigh station facilities
throughout the state. In Illinois, the
VectorSense sensors are installed on
ramps approaching weigh-station
facilities. Inspectors are sent alerts
for vehicles with identified tire
anomalies. TACS is integrated
with the weigh-station operator
software, so the problem tires
are also indicated on graphical
representations of the vehicles’ axles
on the inspectors’ computer displays.
Further inspection
At the station, inspectors verify
the tire problems and commercial
vehicles with flat tires can be placed
out of service. The drivers are
required to fix tire problems before
leaving the inspection station.
Over the first eight months of
TACS implementation, ISP has used
the technology to detect more than
5,000 suspect trucks that were sent to
the report lane for further inspection.
Seamless integration with existing
weigh-in-motion systems made
it easy to onboard TACS without
disrupting established inspection
processes. Illinois has found TACS