A TECHNOLOGY organisation is working on next generation equipment designed to improve vehicles’ tyre performance.

The Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) is supporting company Silent Sensors and Bath University on a new component.

Bosses say the apparatus will help convert mechanical motion into electrical energy and play a key role in a Silent Sensors’ management system designed to provide up-to-the-minute information on tyre condition, which will improve safety and cut fuel costs and carbon emissions by ensuring pressure levels are correct.

They added the CPI, known for running the National Printable Electronics Centre at NetPark, in Sedgefield, County Durham, will help Silent Sensors scale up the equipment, which could be used in future driverless vehicles.

Mark Beckwith, CPI business development manager, said the organisation, which previously worked with Silent Sensors on tyre safety for trucks, was well placed to provide further backing in what officials say is a multibillion pound global monitoring system market.

He added: “We are excited to be a part of this collaboration.

By developing this technology for fleet operators, the potential to improve vehicle safety, as well as greatly reducing carbon emissions, becomes a reality.”

According to Marcus Taylor, chief executive and cofounder of Silent Sensors, data from its tyre equipment will be shared across networks for analysis by companies to work out costs.

Mr Taylor also reiterated how the apparatus could be used in driverless vehicles.

He said: “The intelligent tyre is our goal in the next two years and the materials that Bath University has developed show great promise.

“Within our sensors we have energy harvesting and storage, micro-controllers, short range radio and sensor arrays that will enable future autonomous vehicles to use their tyres to detect information about the environment.

“Our partnership with CPI ensures that we will be able to scale up as demand in the market for these components grows, as it inevitably will in the next five years.”