TIRE EQUIPPED WITH A SENSOR AND A METHOD OF MEASURING STRAIN AMOUNT OF THE TIRE

• US 20100043541A1
• Filed: 11/13/2007
• Published: 02/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Bridgestone (Bridgestone Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Bridgestone (Bridgestone Corporation)
• Inventors: Kobayakawa, Akira
• Granted Patent: US 8,051,705 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 73/146
• CPC Class Codes: B29D 2030/0072 Attaching fasteners to tyres, e.g. patches, in order to connect devices to tyres
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0411 Piezoelectric generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/0493 for attachment on the tyre
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/064 comprising tyre mounted deformation sensors, e.g. to determine road contact area
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 7/16 for measuring the deformation in a solid, e.g. by resistance strain gauge
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 17/02 Tyres

Abstract

This invention provides a tire (10) equipped with a sensor (14), attached to a rubber member (15) in the surface of the tire (10), for detecting deformation of the tire (10). The sensor (14) is adhered to the rubber member (15) with the aid of an elastic adhesive formed of a room-temperature moisture cure adhesive agent composed mainly of an acryl modified silicone resin or the like. The adhesive between the sensor (14) and the rubber member (15) is cured to form an elastic adhesive layer (16). According to the above constitution, the deformation of the rubber member (15) in the tire surface can be transmitted to the sensor (14) with high accuracy, and, at the same time, the durability of the sensor (14) can be improved.

Claims

1. A tire equipped with a sensor, the sensor measuring vibration or deformation of the tire and disposed on a surface portion of the tire wherein an adhesive layer, which is formed by curing an elastic adhesive that becomes an elastic body after cure, is intervened between a rubber member on the surface portion of the tire and the sensor.

2. The tire equipped with the sensor according to claim 1, wherein a reinforcement member, which is made of a film-like member which covers an overall surface including a detection surface of the sensor or an overall surface opposite to the surface including the detection surface and has larger stiffness than stiffness of the sensor and a constant thickness, or a lamination member that is formed by laminating the film-like member and has a constant thickness, is disposed on at least one of the surface including the detection surface of the sensor and the surface opposite to the surface including the detection surface.

3. The tire equipped with the sensor according to claim 1, wherein the elastic adhesive is a room temperature moisture cure type adhesive.

4. The tire equipped with the sensor according to claim 3, wherein a chief ingredient of the elastic adhesive is any of an acrylic modified silicone resin, an epoxy modified silicone resin, a polychloropren synthetic rubber or a silylated urethane resin.

5. The tire equipped with the sensor according to claim 1, wherein an area of a contact surface that the adhesive layer contacts with a deformation part of the sensor is 60% or more of an area of the deformation part.

6. The tire equipped with the sensor according to claim 1, wherein a thickness of the adhesive layer is 3.0 mm or less.

7. The tire equipped with the sensor according to claim 1, wherein an elastic modulus of the adhesive layer is in the range of 0.1 to 100 Mpa and tan δ

is less than 0.1.

15. A method of measuring a strain amount of a tire comprising steps of:

detecting strain amount of the tire by using the sensor of the tire with the sensor according to claim 1;

correcting the detected strain amount of the tire in accordance with each of the elastic modulus and the thickness of the adhesive layer, the rubber member of the tire and the sensor.

17. A method of measuring a strain amount of a tire comprising steps of:

detecting strain amount of the tire by using the sensor in the tire with the sensor according to claim 1;

obtaining a relation between a sensor strain that is the detected strain amount and a tire strain ε

₀ that is strain amount of the rubber member provided with the sensor, in advance, and correcting the detected sensor strain ε

in accordance with the relation.

8. A tire equipped with the sensor comprising a piezoelectric element sensor including a detection part having a piezoelectric element and an electrode and disposed on a surface portion of the tire or in an interior of the tire, wherein a reinforcement member, which covers an overall surface including a detection surface and an overall surface opposite to the surface including the detection surface and has larger stiffness than stiffness of the piezoelectric element, is disposed on at least one of the surface including the detection surface of the sensor and the surface opposite to the surface including the detection surface.

9. The tire equipped with the sensor according to claim 8, wherein the reinforcement member is a film-like member having a constant thickness.

10. The tire equipped with the sensor according to claim 8, wherein the reinforcement member is a lamination member having a constant thickness and formed by laminating the film-like member.

11. The tire equipped with the sensor according to claim 10, wherein stiffness of the film-like member forming the lamination member on a side that is near to the piezoelectric element is larger than stiffness of the film-like member on an side that is far away the piezoelectric element.

12. The tire equipped with the sensor according to claim 8, wherein the reinforcement member is made of a resin selected from at least one of polyamide, polyester, polyimide, nylon, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyethylene, polypropylene, EVA, polyurethane or polyvinyl chloride.

13. The tire equipped with the sensor according to claim 8, wherein the piezoelectric element sensor comprising the reinforcement member is adhered to a tire member by using an elastic adhesive which becomes a elastic body after cure.

14. The tire equipped with the sensor according to claim 8, wherein the reinforcement member is disposed on the surface opposite to the surface including the detection surface at least, and an electronic device for radio communication, which includes an antenna, is formed on the reinforcement member.

16. A method of measuring a strain amount of a tire comprising steps of:

detecting strain amount of the tire by using the sensor in the tire equipped with the sensor according to claim 13;

correcting the detected strain amount of the tire in accordance with each of the elastic modulus and the thickness of the adhesive layer, the rubber member of the tire and the reinforcement member.

18. A method of measuring a strain amount of a tire comprising steps of:

detecting strain amount of the tire by using the sensor in the tire with the sensor according to claim 13;

obtaining a relation between a sensor strain that is the detected strain amount and a tire strain ε

₀ that is strain amount of the rubber member provided with the sensor, in advance, and

correcting the detected sensor strain ε

in accordance with the relation.