News

Datalogic was among the companies presented with a Manufacturing Innovation Award at the recent China Annual Conference on Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing Services Conference held in Beijing. Garnering the accolades is our Stationary Industry Scanner solution tailored for intelligent tire traceability.

China is one of the world’s largest tire manufacturers. As the automotive market continues to grow, there is increased pressure on tire manufacturers to boost their production scale and quality control standards. Tire tracking and traceability is hence becoming a critical requirement for manufacturers throughout the tire production process.

Domestic tire manufacturers needed a reliable solution to ensure tire traceability for quality control, comply with safety regulations and effective product tracking in cases that may trigger a recall (such as accidents or other safety concerns).

Addressing the demands of tire traceability

The ability to read bar codes on tires is a difficult but necessary task for quality control and traceability purposes. Tire manufacturers seek a bar code identification solution with superior read performance to enable tire sorting and identification in real-time; while ensuring that the data collected can be seamlessly integrated with their existing ERP systems.

How is Datalogic helping tire manufacturers in China achieve consistent, reliable tire traceability across every step of the production process? Here is how a domestic tire manufacturer successfully improved its tire traceability process and achieved a higher level of quality assurance with STS400™.

Company Background 

The customer is a renowned domestic tire manufacturer that wanted to accelerate its Industry 4.0 capabilities and ramp up its smart manufacturing operations to gain a competitive edge. Improving tire tracking and traceability was one of the customer’s priorities to raise its technical capabilities and a key step towards achieving its Industry 4.0 ambitions.

Featured Solution

Datalogic STS400™ Stationary Industrial Scanners are used widely by global tire manufacturers. Key features of the solution include:

• Superior performance
• Fast reading speed, covering a wide range of tires
• High reading accuracy and stable performance
• Industry-certified

• Ease of installation
• Pre-assembled and factory-calibrated solution, saving manufacturers additional installation costs and time
• Installation can be carried out on-site by a single person in about half a day
• Integrated with the patented Green Spot technology that provides immediate feedback of the read status without any additional software tools or displays

• Requires minimal maintenance
• Faulty readers can be easily substituted via the automated reader replacement function
• Original settings and operation parameters can be immediately restored after maintenance
• No moving parts guarantee reliability and a longer service life-cycle

Solution Implementation

Aimed at addressing the demanding requirements of tire traceability applications, Datalogic’s STS400™ was seamlessly deployed to achieve the following benefits.

1. Tracking tire information in real-time: STS400™ captures all relevant product and manufacturing information in real-time at a highly effective read rate, enabling the company to improve tire traceability across its production, sales, warehousing and logistics operations.
2. Accurate and unique bar code identification: Each tire is identified with a unique barcode ID for track-and-trace purposes. For instance, the bar codes can be easily and accurately read using the STS400™ to determine the exact specifications, dimensions, tread patterns and ply ratings of each tire for traceability purposes.
3. Close monitoring of factors affecting tire quality: Unique bar code identification also allowed the manufacturer to better manage quality control for tire production, by being able to trace potential tire defects back to the original source and take corrective measures in a timely manner.
4. Improved operational efficiency and greater ROI: Tire traceability processes using the STS400™ do not require additional manual handling. This helped the company significantly reduce error rates and improve production efficiency, resulting in greater ROIs in terms of cost savings, higher performance and ease of maintenance.
5. Competitive advantage through quality assurance: Leveraging STS400™ for tire traceability, the tire manufacturer was able to carve out a stronger competitive niche by offering a high level of after-sale quality assurance and safeguard against reputational damage.

Datalogic’s solutions have greatly contributed to the company’s long-term business growth and future developments in the global tire industry. Plans are underway to incorporate STS400™ into both its domestic and overseas production facilities.

As competition in China’s automotive sector intensifies, Datalogic is well poised to deliver trusted, well-rounded solutions to help tire manufacturers improve their operations and adapt to future tire traceability requirements.