Method and apparatus for measuring irregular tread wear
First Claim
1. Apparatus for measuring and analyzing the tread wear of a pneumatic tire, comprising:
- first means for receiving and rotating a tire about the axis of rotation of the tire;
second means adjacent the tire for scanning a field of view including a tread surface of the tire and obtaining data from said field of view; and
control means interconnected between said first and second means for controlling said rotation of the tire and said scanning of said field of view and analyzing said data, said control means measuring and analyzing the tread wear from said data, and wherein said control means controls said first means to index the tire about said axis a set amount between scans of said field of view by said second means, controls said second means to scan said field of view at a fixed rate, and acquires said data from said second means and generates a matrix of data corresponding to discrete points within said field of view.
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Abstract
An apparatus and technique for measuring and analyzing the tread wear of a pneumatic tire. The tire is indexed about its axis. Between the indexing steps, a laser scanner obtains data from the tread surface. This data is normalized to eliminate any out-of-roundness of the tire data. Noise spikes are removed and replaced with values attributable to valid data. From the data, a reference curve corresponding to a lateral sector of the tire is devised. The data from actual lateral sectors is then compared to the reference curve by a curve-fitting process and the deviation between the actual data and the reference curve establishes the degree of irregular wear of the tire at that lateral point.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. Apparatus for measuring and analyzing the tread wear of a pneumatic tire, comprising:
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first means for receiving and rotating a tire about the axis of rotation of the tire; second means adjacent the tire for scanning a field of view including a tread surface of the tire and obtaining data from said field of view; and control means interconnected between said first and second means for controlling said rotation of the tire and said scanning of said field of view and analyzing said data, said control means measuring and analyzing the tread wear from said data, and wherein said control means controls said first means to index the tire about said axis a set amount between scans of said field of view by said second means, controls said second means to scan said field of view at a fixed rate, and acquires said data from said second means and generates a matrix of data corresponding to discrete points within said field of view. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method for measuring and analyzing the tread wear of a pneumatic tire, comprising:
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indexing the tire about its axis of rotation; scanning a data field including the tire and obtaining data from discrete data points within said data field; determining those data points defining a tread surface of the tire, said data points defining a matrix of circumferentially and laterally aligned sets of data points; and removing a first harmonic from said matrix of data points, compensating for out-of-roundness of the tire. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification