ConnecTire from Trelleborg bringing data sharing to agricultural wheels

Trelleborg has announced it will launch a smart wheel “designed to produce more, with less” at next month’s Agritechnica trade fair. Called ConnecTire, the new product is a sensor-based smart wheel that enables data sharing at multiple levels, reducing the risk of tyre slippage on the rim. It allows farmers to leverage the Internet of Things for safer and more efficient operations.

Operating key farm machinery at the lowest safe pressure is a key challenge – being in control of this maintains the safety both of machine and operator as well as ensuring minimum impact on topsoil. During operations tyre pressure can change due to a number of factors including ambient and soil temperatures, as well as the intensity of task being performed and the configuration of the machine itself.

ConnecTire constantly monitors two key variables – tyre pressure and temperature – which it relays to both tractor and farm mainframes via Bluetooth and wireless connectivity. Operators set their target tyre pressure and can then monitor how tyre pressure deviates from that target and act accordingly. Should corrective action be required, ConnecTire automatically sends an alert via its App, ensuring minimum disruption and maximum machine safety.

“ConnecTire is about ensuring efficiency and sustainability; tyres are required to work intelligently and to be at the right pressure at all times,” elaborates Piero Mancinelli, R&D director at Trelleborg Wheel Systems. “Farm machinery is exposed to many variables throughout a working day, all of which can impact upon efficiency – ambient temperature, humidity and soil conditions. Being able to be in control of these allows farming operations to reduce inefficiencies. The alert via App capability is an essential feature of ConnecTire; changing conditions can require immediate action in order to maintain maximum efficiency and prevent rim slippage. ConnecTire’s communications functions enables fingertip control.”

Beyond tyre monitoring, ConnecTire delivers further advantages: An inbuilt GPS capability identifies the live position of the tractor helping to keep lone workers safe and even safeguarding the tyres and machine against risk of theft. In addition, with the help of precision farming software, farm managers are able to track the number of machine passes over every square centimetre of land, helping to limit soil compaction and erosion as much as possible.

Mancinelli, continues: “Repeatedly driving over the same ground at different stages of the crop cycle has a long-term impact on yield. With ConnecTire, we saw an opportunity to help reduce this effect by providing the data that allows farms to identify at risk areas and mitigate this. Efficient use of land is essential and by reducing the number of machine passes, ConnecTire helps soil to rapidly recover fertility and yield potential.”