Tire-Pressure Monitoring System Can Save Automakers More Than $500 Million, Intertech Says

Uses Same Passive Technology in Electronic Retail Tags

NORWOOD, Mass.--June 17, 2004--A new technology for monitoring tire pressure could save U.S. automakers complying with the TREAD Act more than $500 million a year, according to the inventor, David A. Vogel, Ph.D., president of Intertech Engineering Associates, Inc. Intertech's system uses magnetostrictive materials, a version of the technology that retailers use in billions of cheap electronic-article-surveillance tags to prevent theft.

The benefits include lower cost, simpler design, greater accuracy, no batteries inside tires and ability to read both pressure and temperature, Vogel said.

Intertech is looking to partner with an automotive electronics supplier for research and development to bring the product to market.

Vogel expects each sensor will cost less than $1 and an entire system will cost about $36 per vehicle instead of $70.35, including $7.50 per tire, according to a NHTSA estimate of the cost of the current technology, which uses a battery-powered sensor inside each tire and a radio-frequency link to the dashboard.

"It's a highly innovative, practical solution," said Dennis Virag, president of Automotive Consulting Group in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which assessed the system. "The current technology can only sense pressure. This is a passive system that can sense both pressure and temperature at a lower cost, without batteries to replace and dispose of."

Ability to detect high temperatures can give drivers the chance to avoid catastrophic tire failures like blowouts and tread separation, he added.

Vogel said that all major automakers have seen a technology demonstration and believe it has great potential. "Their engineers confirmed that there aren't any 'show-stoppers.' They agreed that commercialization would require some straightforward engineering but not any breakthroughs."

Vogel said a product could be ready for the market within a year or two.

"We've taken a proven technology out of an existing high-volume application and adopted it for another use," he said.

The Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act of 2000 requires new passenger cars, light trucks, multipurpose passenger vehicles and smaller buses to be equipped with a tire-pressure monitoring system (TPMS) under a phased-in schedule that began in 2003.

An Indiana University study concluded that under-inflated tires probably cause 1.4 percent of all motor vehicle crashes, or 260,000 crashes each year because vehicles with low tires handle poorly, can't stop as fast and are prone to blowouts. Additionally, under-inflation wastes gas.

NHTSA surveys have found that about 50 percent of passenger-car tires and 13 percent of truck tires are under-inflated.

Intertech is an engineering firm that develops the software and electronics in medical devices, consumer and business products.

More information about the Intertech system is available from Vogel at dav@inea.com or 781-255-5420.