The Leading Journal for the Tyre Recycling Sector

The Leading Journal for the Tyre Recycling Sector

Bridgestone Aims To Improve Tyre Recycling with RFID Tags by 2030

Bridgestone, one of the largest tyre manufacturers in the world, is planning to help reduce the carbon footprint of its commercial vehicle line of tyres by producing RFID tagged tyres in 2024.

Tyres with tags will be linked to a cloud-based system to help monitor tyre performance and condition.

By the end of 2022, the d company plans to begin expanding its plant in Warren County, Tennessee. A big part of this expansion will include installing production equipment capable of embedding tyres with radio frequency identification (RFID).

The technology is not new, RFID tagging has been around since the 1940s, where its use was in identifying aircraft by radio signal – a system that is essentially still in use today.

In the tyre sector, RFID has been used in retread plants to follow tyres through the process, and this is where Bridgestone is introducing the tagging system in North America and Europe to help manage large fleets where the use of retread tyres is common.

Bridgestone also plans to set up new lines in Japan and the rest of Asia to produce RFID-tagged tyres starting in 2024. They plan to shift entirely to these new tyres for trucks and buses in Japan, the U.S., and Europe by 2030, with plans to eventually offer RFID-tagged tyres to passenger car tyres as well.

According to the Japan Automobile Tyre Manufacturers Association, tyre performance and maintenance can have an impact on 26% of carbon emissions by commercial vehicles and 18% by passenger vehicles.

After acquiring several fleet maintenance service providers, Bridgestone looks to link them to the new RFID-tagged tyres to provide more value-added services. The company hopes to double revenue from its solutions business, including vehicle maintenance, to around 2 trillion yen ($13.8 billion) in 2030.

Source:asia.nikkei.com