Sept 2011: iPhone to the rescue of farmers with Tyre Pressure Calculator

In a path breaking release, Firestone, introduced the latest iPhone application designed to help the farmers maintain the correct tyre pressures of their tractor tyres.

This application needs to be downloaded from the Apple Store directly into the phone. Called the ‘Tyre Pressure Calculator‘, the users have to simply select the correct tyre size from the drop down menu and check the corresponding tyre pressure for the load and speed of their tractors.

When the tractor is operated with incorrect pressure it results in shortening the tyre-life and increasing soil compaction. The end result is reduced crop yield.

This unique application would also come handy to the farmers when they would switch from farming activity to road transport. By the help of this application they would be able to reset the tyre pressure to its correct level, thereby increasing its longevity.

This new application would be officially launched at the ‘Agritechnica Show’, the world’s largest agricultural machinery and equipment exhibition, in Hanover from November 13 to 19, 2011.

Users of iPhone throughout Europe can already download the IOS application for usage. Other smart phone users would also be able to get the benefit of this innovation as Firestone plans to extend this service through Android and web based platform, which are currently undergoing development. More than one language would be added to the application.

Senior Manager Agricultural Tyre Marketing, Bridgestone Europe, said that the usual practice of the company was to refer any farmer’s query about the correct tyre pressure to the manufactures’ technical data book. In remote countryside, few farmers possess copy of that book, leaving them in the dark. The company decided to solve this problem with the introduction of the application based solution.

There is a direct correlation between the correct tyre pressure and crop yield. A badly compacted soil loses its ability to store and circulate soil and water. Both these are the very essence on which the life of a plant depends. Without these no seed germination or plant growth would occur.

Rafal Spirydon, the Senior Manager Agricultural Tyre Marketing, explained how the tyre’s inflation pressure was the reason of its ground contact pressure. So correcting the tyre pressure improved the soil compaction, thereby increasing the yield and profits for the farmer.

Recently conducted experiments by Firestone showed that when tyre pressure was reduced from 1.6 bar to 0.6 bar, the crop yield increased by nearly 40%. Farmers have the tendency to increase the tyre pressure to compensate for the bulge at the bottom of the radial tyres. This reduces the tyre life and increases the soil compaction.

Spirydon emphasised the utility of the new application as it effectively helped the farmers to solve this problem in very easy and user friendly way. The problem of correctly matching the tyre pressure with the load carried by the tractors was always a daunting one for the farmers. More often than not they had to pay the price with shortened tyre life. This new application would prove to be a boon for them in the long run.