NASHVILLE. Aperia Technologies Inc. used it’s slot in media day at the Technology & Maintenance Council Annual Meeting and Transportation Technology Exhibition here to outline the growing market presence of the Halo Tire Inflator and to announce the addition of a proven industry innovator to its team.
The Halo—a simple, bolt-on tire inflation device for tractors and trailers—has now been deployed on thousands of vehicles operated in over 100 fleets, reports Josh Carter, CEO of Aperia. The performance and impact of the tire inflation system has been validated in over 50 individual fleet customer tests since its introduction two years ago.
“Halo is increasingly preferred by all types and sizes of fleets because it’s the easiest tire inflation system to add to new vehicles or to retrofit on existing equipment,” Carter said. “In the past year we’ve seen many fleets move from pilot tests, to putting Halos on all new trucks and trailers, to full fleet full retrofits. These customers are adding thousands of Halo systems after seeing results of over 50 individual fleet tests that confirm the value of the Halo tire inflation system on tractors and trailers.”
To help fleets confidently adopt Halo, Aperia designed a wireless data acquisition system that allows customers to easily install and monitor the benefits of the inflation device in real world driving conditions. In one of the tests, the tire pressure trend over a 100-day period demonstrated that while control tires lost as much as 2 PSI per week on average, tires with Halo systems consistently maintained proper operating pressure.
In another fleet test on 10 tractors driven more than 1 million miles in 12 months, Halo improved fuel economy by 1.1% and extend tire life by 14.4%, according to Carter. In addition to receiving positive driver reviews, the fleet saved $1,676 per tractor or a total of $16,760 during the evaluation period.
“The implications of our customer tests based on tire wear studies are that Halo can improve tire life by 12% on average,” Carter said. “If Halo were used throughout the Class 7 and 8 trucking industry, it could reduce tire waste by over 11 million tires annually and save 1.7 billion gallons of fuel from being used unnecessarily.”
To help support the growing market demand for the Halo Tire Inflator, Andrew Smith has joined Aperia as a Senior Advisor. Smith was the founder and former CEO of ATDynamics prior to its acquisition in 2015 by STEMCO/EnPro Industries.
While assisting Aperia’s mission, Smith will continue to serve as a consultant to STEMCO, where he played a major role in bringing the benefits of trailer aerodynamics technology to trucking companies.
“Just as the most competitive fleets in the industry have added aerodynamic devices to trailers, the most competitive fleets will also soon have tire inflation systems on their tractors as well as their trailers,” Smith said. “The adoption of Halo is a simple decision for fleet executives once they realize that its cost saving, safety and environmental benefit potential can be realized immediately.”
Prior to being officially introduced at the TMC annual meeting in 2014, Halo completed fleet field trials for over two years, racking up eight million miles of on-road testing, according to the company. Halo is an easy-to-install system that operates on a principle similar to a self-winding watch. The device uses a wheel's rotational motion to pump and maintain optimal tire pressure. The system does not require any connection to a compressor and can be installed in five to ten minutes per wheel end on trucks, tractors and trailers with dual or wide-base single tires.
