VEHICLE HAVING TIRE WEAR EVALUATION SYSTEM

• US 20100238007A1
• Filed: 02/19/2010
• Published: 09/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: KIKUCHI, Akira, Futami, Motoo, Sato, Takayuki, Yasuda, Tomohiko, Minoshima, Toshikazu, Nakajima, Kichio
• Granted Patent: US 8,319,621 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/438
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 11/246 Tread wear monitoring systems
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/04 mounted on the wheel or tyre
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 99/006 Computer aided tyre design or simulation

Abstract

A vehicle which evaluates tire wear properly even in a road condition that tires easily slip or lock up. The vehicle, which has a driven wheel and a driving wheel with tires attached thereto, includes: a revolution speed detector for detecting revolution speeds of the driven and driving wheels; a wheel speed detector for detecting wheel speeds of the driven and driving wheels based on the detected revolution speed data of the driven and driving wheels; a wheel speed ratio detector for detecting a wheel speed ratio between the driven and driving wheels based on the detected wheel speed data of the driven and driving wheels; and a tire condition evaluator for outputting an evaluation result indicating that the tire(s) attached to the driven wheel and/or driving wheel is(are) worn when the wheel speed ratio is higher than a preset threshold.

Claims

1. A vehicle having a driven wheel and a driving wheel to which tires are attached, comprising:

a revolution speed detector for detecting revolution speeds of the driven wheel and the driving wheel and outputting detected revolution speed data;

a wheel speed detector for detecting wheel speeds of the driven wheel and the driving wheel based on the detected revolution speed data of the driven wheel and the driving wheel and outputting the detected wheel speed data;

a wheel speed ratio detector for detecting a wheel speed ratio between the detected wheel speed of the driven wheel and the detected wheel speed of the driving wheel based on the detected wheel speed data of the driven wheel and the driving wheel; and

a tire condition evaluator for outputting an evaluation result indicating that the tire attached to the driven wheel or the driving wheel is worn or the tires attached to the driven wheel and the driving wheel are worn, when a frequency of the wheel speed ratio exceeding a prescribed range is higher than a preset threshold.

2. The vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the frequency is the number of times that the wheel speed ratio detector detects that the prescribed range is exceeded while the vehicle is running on a road.

3. The vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising:

a payload detector for detecting a payload; and

a wear detection count threshold calculator for outputting the threshold;

wherein the wear detection count threshold calculator adjusts the threshold according to detected payload data outputted by the payload detector.

4. The vehicle according to claim 3, wherein the wear detection count threshold calculator makes an adjustment to make the threshold smaller when the detected payload data outputted by the payload detector is larger.

5. The vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising:

a road surface condition detector for detecting a surface condition of the road on which it is running; and

the wear detection count threshold calculator for outputting the threshold,

wherein the wear detection count threshold calculator adjusts the threshold according to road surface condition information outputted by the road surface condition detector.

6. The vehicle according to claim 5, wherein the wear detection count threshold calculator makes an adjustment to make the threshold smaller when a road surface friction coefficient obtained from the road surface condition information outputted by the road surface condition detector is higher.

7. The vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising a display, wherein the evaluation result is sent to the display.

8. The vehicle according to claim 1, further comprising a transmitter, wherein the transmitter is used to send the evaluation result to a manager of the vehicle.