Last month I travelled to Santiago in Chile to find out how the integration of our TMS® technology into Bailac?s UMAN (Active Monitoring Unit of Tires) solution was working out.
I met with Alberto Bailac, grandson of founder Pascual Bailac, and was delighted both with the results the combined technologies were achieving and the strength of the partnership between our two family-owned companies. Alberto spends all his time and energy saving his customers money and promoting the highest possible standards of safety and care. It?s fantastic because it?s everything we believe in and as a result our relationship is going from strength to strength.
Bailac had always offered a comprehensive range of tire services to the mining industry and we?d worked with them since 2006 but it was Alberto?s vision to create a tire monitoring system capable of evaluating and analysing the pressure and temperature of the Off The Road Tires (OTRs) that was realised with the launch of the innovative UMAN product in 2010.
Under blue skies and in blistering heat at the El Soldado copper mine north of Santiago Rodolfo Zalavari, UMAN Project Engineer, told me how delighted he?s been with the take-up of the system. The mine is owned by Anglo American who has a mixed fleet of mine haul truck and they?ve been operating UMAN since 2010. At the time of my visit more than 30 vehicles had already been fitted with the system with more installations due imminently. An indisputable success.
Bailac uses a combination of our internal and external TMS® sensors, the data from which is transferred to the UMAN unit so drivers can be made aware of any fluctuations in pressure or temperature outside the ranges recommended by tire manufacturers. The tire pressure and temperature information is also relayed from trucks and loaders via a mine-wide WiFi network direct to the Anglo American Service & Contract Manager who can see at a glance any issues likely to arise and implement corrective measures quickly and efficiently.
The visit reminded me of the magnitude of the job OTRs do in the mining environment, the extreme conditions in which they operate and the scale of the disruption caused if tires fail. Seeing with my own eyes the real and immediate impact our collaboration with UMAN has had at El Soldado reminded me why we spend so much time and energy developing tire pressure sensing technology.
Flying home I was sad to leave the Chilean weather and generous hospitality behind, but I couldn?t wait to get back to our product developers and find out what I?d missed while I was away?..
Find out more about our pioneering TMS® system go to www.tiremonitorsystem.com