Page 26 - CTB N9 - 2015-01

NEWS EXTRA
Hankook Truck Tyre Pattern Wins iF Design Award
Hankook Tire has been honoured with the iF Design Award 2015 in the product discipline for its all-season truck and bus radial tyre, SmartFlex AH31.
For tyres, unlike other industrial designs focusing on aesthetic features, the product design carries extra significance as a factor that directly contributes to its driving performance as well as safety-related aspects. For
a convenient and strong usage while operating on long and regional distances. The tyre features the M+S and 3PMS (3 Peak Mountain Snowflake) marks as well as a pattern with wide tread and shoulder design, along with 3 dimensional kerfs which ensures longer mileage, good handling performance and minimised irregular wear. Hankook’s Tread Wear Equalised
Stepper (T.W.E.S.) technology which is applied to the tyre’s block design pattern allows for improved even wear, resulting in longer tyre life. The Hankook SmartFlex AH31 will be available in 3 additional sizes (385/65R22.5, 385/55R22.5, and 315/60R22.5) as of Q3 2015 and an reinforced version with increased load index (295/80R22.5, LI 154/148) as of Q2 2015. Established in 1953, the iF Design Award has been one of the most reputable international design awards along with the Red Dot Design Award and the International Design Excellence Award (IDEA). Held annually, the iF Design Award assesses entries based on various
evaluation criteria including design quality, functionality, safety, visualisation of intended use and intuitiveness and environmental impact.
Last year, Hankook Tire recorded a grand slam of receiving recognitions for it technological leadership and outstanding design capability from all of the world’s top-4 design awards – iF Design Award, Red Dot Design Award, IDEA, and Good Design Award.
example, core tyre safety performance such as water channelling and hydroplaning resistance are predominantly determined by tread pattern designs and structure.
Hankook’s SmartFlex AH31, an all-season truck tyre well-suited for variable road and weather conditions, was recognised for its technology and design newly adopted to provide even wear and high mileage performance with very low rolling resistance. The steer axle tyre is designed for
Pneuscan Your Tyres
Tyre related costs are one of the top maintenance expenses for transportation fleets. Underinflated and worn tyres cause shorter tyre life, road safety concerns, higher fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. The best way to keep vehicles in check require that tyres be checked often - a process, that is cumbersome, time consuming and labour intensive.
Until now: PNEUSCAN tyre check systems are a fast and easy way to check tyres often, using an innovative centre technology. The automatic drive-through-system reads the tyre pressure and tread depth of each tyre automatically and accurately in just seconds. An entire fleet can be checked in minutes helping to reduce costs, improve safety and safe time.
The system is currently being used in the USA by COTA (Central Ohio Transit Authority), which is the public transport provider for Columbus and Central Ohio. Dan West, Director, Quality Assurance, COTA commented:
“The PNEUSCAN system by Ventech is a system that allows us to check the tyre pressures of our vehicles as they roll into the facility. We have one system in each of our two facilities.
It´s a very fast and efficient system that allows us to keep up with wear on our tyres. If the vehicle is out on the road and
experiences any kind of curbing issue or damage we can immediately catch a low tyre pressure issue just as soon as it comes back into the garage. Additionally, the system can see extreme over inflation. These instances can be caused by excessive heat build-up and through proper root cause investigation can be traced to brake issues. The end result is less service interrupting roadcalls.”
PNEUSCAN works differently than other tyre checking systems: the vehicle is driven over sensor plates that are mounted in an area normally travelled by the vehicle. Pressure and tread-depth measurement are read and then visually displayed on the system’s LCD Unit. Along with the numerical readings, green-red indicators easily reveal the condition of the tyres. PNEUSCAN does not require any modification be made to the vehicle and there´s no additional hand-held device or labour needed to take the readings. At the same time the vehicle’s identification is captured and matched to the tyre measurements. With the results, operators can choose the best course of action for maintenance or simply save the information in an existing fleet management system for later use.
New Number and New Service for NTDA TyreLink
The NTDA has announced that as of the 1st April 2015 it is transferring the TyreLink call centre service back to Infleet Limited. TyreLink is the name of the NTDA’s long-established tyre breakdown scheme, which coordinates members of the Association to offer a 24 hour roadside breakdown service for trucks throughout Great
Britain and Northern Ireland.
The new number for the call centre is 0333 2023020. This is a unique TyreLink service number that will be managed by the RAC from its state of the art call centre on the M6 near Walsall.
The current TyreLink number, 0800 424999, will become obsolete as of midnight on 31st
March 2015.
NTDA Director, Stefan Hay, said: “We believe that this move will be an extremely positive one for both the TyreLink scheme and its members as it enables more jobs to be put into the TyreLink network and for the service levels to members to be improved.”
To that end, the NTDA will be
issuing new unique TyreLink (TL) codes for each TyreLink member depot, so not only will it be able to advise you which company has carried out a job, but also specifically which depot.
Further details on the TL numbers will be sent to TyreLink members throughout March.
26 Commercial Tyre Business