Transense Signs MOU With Mesnac

Transense has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Qingdao Mesnac Co. Ltd, the parent company of the Sailun brand’s tyre manufacturing division. According to an official statement, Transense and Mesnac have entered into an agreement to combine their individual areas of expertise, for the purpose of developing Transense's patented tyre pressure monitoring sensor technology for the attachment or embedding of these sensors into tyres. Under the terms of the agreement Mesnac have agreed to an initial upfront payment and will pay additional sums for technology transfer/engineering support on an as required basis. Transense shares rose 17 per cent following the news.

The latest MOU can be seen as a development of an earlier deal negotiated by British company Pneu-Logic. Prior to its sale and integration into SAW wave and TPMS chip specialist Transense, Pneu-Logic produced and sold original equipment and retrofit RFID chips around the world as part of the larger Advanced ID Corporation. Following the sale of Pneu-Logic division to Transense and its subsequent reincarnation as the company’s Translogik Ltd division, the two companies have been working on fusing Transense’s patented pressure monitoring and piezo power systems with the RFID tags to produce and distribute a new third party “e-tyre” implant worldwide.

The earlier deal (signed back in April 2008) saw Advanced ID supply “a minimum of 2 million” RFID chips to Mesnac through the Pneu-Logic division. The agreement also included a quantity of RFID readers. At the time Tyres & Accessories reported that Qingdao, China-based Mesnac was already working through a stock of 100,000 chips bought for use in a “range of testing purposes.”

Graham Storey, Commercial Director of Transense commented: “We are delighted to have signed this agreement with Mesnac. We recently visited their facilities in China and were extremely impressed with their production environment and technical expertise. It is apparent that Mesnac have ambitious plans for developing a Tyre Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) applicable to Off the Road (OTR) vehicles, Truck and Passenger cars, and we look forward to bringing our patented technology to market in partnership with them.”

No details of the financial terms of the either the earlier 2008 deal or the more recent agreement have been disclosed