Safer Corp's Vigia ATP system comes to America

Nov. 1, 2004
Safer Corp has made the Vigia Automatic Tire Pressure (ATP) system available to the United States transportation industry. Unlike other ATP systems, Vigia

Safer Corp has made the Vigia Automatic Tire Pressure (ATP) system available to the United States transportation industry. Unlike other ATP systems, Vigia (Spanish for “sentry” or “guardian”) can be installed on solid axles, allowing its use on trucks, buses and RVs as well as trailers. The first Vigia system was installed in Argentina in 1978, and currently more than 250,000 systems are installed on vehicles worldwide.

Unlike other ATP systems, the filtered air travels through a dedicated pipe distributed directly to each tire. Other systems pressurize the hollow axle to transport air to the tire. Additionally, since Vigia uses back pressure valves, any defect in a single tire will not affect other tires. Even if a blowout occurs, only that tire is affected. All other tires will stay at their calibrated pressure.

Because it employs an electronic valve, Vigia “shoots” the air at a much faster rate — 120 psi — versus “trickling” the air like mechanical valves. If the preset tire pressure in any tire drops 3 psi from its calibrated level, air is immediately released to the tire. If the tire continues to lose air, the Vigia system will maintain the calibrated pressure until the driver can stop to have it repaired. The driver is kept aware of the entire process through an alert system in the control panel.

In case of catastrophic air loss, the Vigia system is equipped with two safety valves that prevent the vehicle's air supply from ever falling below 70 psi. Should the air supply fall near 70 psi, Vigia discontinues taking air from the tank while the control panel flashes a red light, alerting the driver so that a safe pullover can be accomplished.

For more information on the Vigia ATP system, phone 877-777-2337 or access www.saferco.com