LOUISVILLE, KY -- Continental Tire the Americas, LLC has introduced its own tire pressure monitoring system, called ContiPressureCheck. It's an advanced tire pressure monitoring system specifically designed for commercial vehicles.

The system constantly monitors the pressure and temperature of each tire on the vehicle in order to provide real-time, on-demand tire status information and to warn the driver of tire-related problems before they become a critical concern, said Clif Armstrong, CTA's director of commercial vehicle tire marketing for the Americas.

"ContiPressureCheck is a unique product that brings together all Continental's expertise in tires, inflation, in-cab displays, sensors and monitoring technologies for a direct system that not only provides advanced, accurate pressure data, but also addresses fleet concerns about fuel economy and operating cost reductions," Armstrong said.

ContiPressureCheck integrates its sensors, communication system and data processor into a single module that is housed inside a rubber container and glued to the inner surface of the tire. The sensors continuously monitor both air pressure and the tire's temperature, and send data wirelessly to the truck's electronic control unit (ECU). This processes the data, saves warnings and sends them directly to a display in the driver's cab. The driver can immediately take corrective action and avoid a breakdown before it happens.

ContiPressureCheck has two major advantages for commercial truck drivers over other systems, Armstrong said. First, it is the only system on the market to account for the tire's temperature at its most optimal point inside the tire, which eliminates interference from other outside elements. The system then compensates for the temperature in the inflation data.

"Since a tire's contained air pressure naturally increases as a vehicle moves, it can be difficult to tell if a hot tire is underinflated. Without some form of temperature compensation, a hot tire that is underinflated might appear to be fine, because the contained air pressure is at or above its cold inflation pressure," Armstrong said. "With ContiPressureCheck, we measure both tire pressure and temperature, in order to give the most accurate reading. This feature alerts drivers to underinflation issues even in the case of slow leaks, which are difficult to detect in a system that is not compensated. "

ContiPressureCheck will be available to the North American trucking marketplace in fall 2012.