Japan Airlines Co and Bridgestone Corporation have expanded the application of tyre wear prediction technology to implement scheduled tyre replacement operations for large jet aircraft, including the Airbus A350-900, which has been operated by JAL since May 2024.
Aircraft tyres must have guaranteed safety and security and ensure the takeoff and landing of aircraft under harsh conditions, including heavy load, high speeds, and a wide range of temperatures.
Typically, aircraft tyres need to be replaced after several hundred takeoffs and landings. However, the rate of tyre wear varies depending on a variety of factors, such as the usage conditions for a given aircraft or at a given airport. This condition has made scheduling tire replacements difficult, leading to replacements being treated as an unscheduled task, which can result in the sudden need to replace tyres or multiple tyres around the same time.
To address this issue, Bridgestone partnered with JAL to develop operating procedures that enable scheduled tyre replacements. By combining JAL’s aircraft insights and flight data with Bridgestone’s tyre expertise and digital tyre wear prediction technologies, highly accurate predictions of the optimal time to replace tyres have been formulated. Since May 2020, these procedures have been in place for the regional jet aircraft operated by J-AIR Corporation.
With four years of experience, the use of these procedures has contributed to improved efficiency in tyre replacement operations, lower and more consistent stocks of tyres and wheels, as well as subsequent reductions in CO2 emissions from the production and use of such items.
Moreover, tyre replacement operations have transformed from an unscheduled task into a scheduled task with the accurate prediction model, which has also contributed to reforming the workstyles of maintenance staff by reducing unscheduled overtime while also improving the quality of maintenance through the expansion of preventive maintenance.
Based on their combined expertise and insights, JAL and Bridgestone have advanced tyre wear prediction technology and its applications. The use has been expanded from being limited to specific regional jet aircraft to now include large jet aircraft operated by JAL.
Looking ahead, JAL and Bridgestone will continue such collaboration in order to create new value, which contributes to the development of the aviation industry.