SCANNER SYSTEM FOR GARAGE EQUIPMENT FOR MOTOR VEHICLE GARAGES

• US 20110204880A1
• Filed: 02/22/2011
• Published: 08/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap-On Equipment S.r.l. (Snap-On Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Snap-On Equipment S.r.l. (Snap-On Incorporated)
• Inventors: BRAGHIROLI, Francesco
• Granted Patent: US 8,674,684 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 324/207.2
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 7/003 for measuring position, not involving coordinate determination coordinate measuring G01B7/004
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 7/315 for testing wheel alignment

Abstract

The present invention concerns a scanner system for scanning the surface of an object, especially a vehicle wheel, the system comprises a mobile scanner including at least one sensor adapted to sense at least one position on the surface of the object and a reference system to which the sensor is sensitively adapted to provide at least one sensor signal corresponding the at least one sensed position on the surface with respect to the reference system, wherein the reference system is designed to provide a magnetic field having at least one orientation and the sensor is a magnetic sensor to be positioned within said magnetic field in proximity of or on the surface to be scanned.

Claims

1. A scanner system for a vehicle service machine, especially a tyre changer or a wheel balancer or a wheel alignment system or a roller test bench, for scanning the surface of an object, especially a vehicle wheel, comprising:

a mobile scanner including at least one sensor adapted to sense at least one position on the surface of the object, and

a reference system to which the sensor is sensitively adapted to provide at least one sensor signal corresponding the at least one sensed position on the surface with respect to the reference system,

characterized in that

the reference system is designed to provide a magnetic field having at least one orientation and

the sensor is a magnetic sensor to be positioned within said magnetic field in proximity of or on the surface to be scanned.

2. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the reference system comprises a stationary positioned magnetic field.

3. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the mobile scanner is designed to keep the magnetic sensor in a predetermined spatial orientation, particularly with respect to the Earth'"'"'s magnetic field present on the scanning location.

4. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the magnetic sensor is sensitive in two or three perpendicular orientations (axes).

5. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the magnetic field of the reference system is oriented in three orthogonal axes.

6. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the magnetic field of the reference system is a static field or a modulated field.

7. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the magnetic field of the reference system is produced by means of one or more coils.

8. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the at least one sensor is designed as a solid-state magnetic sensor, especially based on Hall effect, anisotropic magneto resistance or giant magneto resistance.

9. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the sensor signal is proportional to the total field magnitude at the sensor'"'"'s location.

10. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the mobile scanner is designed in form of a hand-held scanner.

11. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the mobile scanner includes or is combined with additional position detecting means, particularly based on time-of-flight ultrasonic trilateration or on acceleration measurement.

12. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the magnetic field of the reference system is associated with a machine frame adapted to receive the object to be scanned.

13. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the mobile scanner is connected to the reference system via a wireless communication link.

14. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the mobile scanner is powered via a wireless power transmission device.

15. The scanner system according to claim 1,

wherein the magnetic field of the reference system is provided by one or more magnetic field generators each comprising one or more coils.