Kal Tire's integration of AI driven autonomous inspections, TOMS tire event data and expert condition monitoring teams, ensures TireSight delivers targeted and timely recommendations 24/7.
As mines look for ways to maximize fleet uptime and get the most out of budgets, many are increasingly focused on the important role tires can play in achieving their goals. More specifically, how cutting-edge technology can be used to revolutionize mining tire inspections.
As an international leader in mining tire service and supply, Kal Tire's Mining Tire Group set out to implement a solution that would increase the quality and frequency of inspections without trucks even needing to stop—and ensure priority tire work is addressed early to further enhance uptime, safety and tire life.
The result is TireSight: A uniquely integrated approach that combines the thermal imaging cameras and software of Pitcrew AI, Kal Tire's TOMS (Tire & Operations Management System), and expert condition monitoring teams who communicate what's important and when it's important for each mine according to their specific needs.
How does TireSight work?
Thermal imaging cameras are set up by a haul road, a crusher or a fuel bullet. While technicians can only manually inspect about half of a stationary tire due to its sheer size, a truck passing by a TireSight station allows cameras to see three to five full rotations of each tire, ensuring every area of the tire is inspected at every passing.
Next, Pitcrew AI software scans the thermal imaging footage for anomalies such as hot spots, separated belts or tread damage—issues that could otherwise go undetected from the human eye.
Anomalies are processed in TOMS, which acts as the hub of TireSight. Remote condition monitoring teams support sites around the clock. They receive alerts and validate anomalies as well as automated TOMS work orders to ensure tire work is performed when needed. As a result, fleet planning teams receive timely information to make decisions that reduce risk and downtime.
Using TireSight to scan all trucks means technicians can now focus their time for the follow-up tasks that require their expertise. TireSight offers sites the opportunity to move to a condition-based inspection program where site teams focus on pre-determined tires where damage has been identified by the system. One site running TireSight has seen a 20% reduction in inspection related downtime as a result.
In addition to reducing technicians' exposure to trucks, TireSight helps ensure trucks are safe for people to operate until the next planned service. Increased inspection frequency identifies issues earlier and overall allows for more proactive maintenance. On some customer sites, this has reduced risk of unmanaged hot tire events to zero, permitting increased operational uptime.
Christian Erdelyi, manager for mining technology solutions, Kal Tire's Mining Tire Group, says the work with TireSight and Pitcrew AI has generated plenty of excitement in mining and he sees this as part of a wider attempt to bring even greater safety and sustainability to mining tires.
"We want to enhance the safety of team members, reduce safety-related incidents and enable innovation," he adds. "We ensure customers have the best advice on when there's a need to repair or change tires. We also make decisions about tire work based on each customer's priority, whether that's fleet productivity or tire performance."
Erdelyi notes that miners today expect to be part of the "data economy" whereby sensor information—such as that from tire pressure monitoring systems or Pitcrew AI—are combined with other collected information sources to provide rapid insights that drive improved decision making.
"We can leverage five decades of knowledge and the million inspections per year to improve how miners operate," Erdelyi enthuses. "We need to act on information as it's received and that means knowledge can't just be captured on paper. In a maintenance world, we can help team members focus on decision making and not the laborious tasks of capturing that data."
As Kal Tire continues to evolve TireSight, it knows that one of the greatest benefits is people—both the tire experts performing the work and the condition monitoring teams with a keen eye on potential issues.
"We don't want to take the human out of mining. We can support them with technologies such as TireSight and help them to make better decisions, and ensure the best use of everyone's time," Erdelyi claims.
