Apparatus and method for tire pressure measurement
First Claim
1. An apparatus for determining inflation pressure of a pneumatic tire mounted on a wheel of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
- (i) a support for supporting the tire such that the tire is in contact with the support over a contact area;
(ii) a plurality of sensors within the support each for measuring the pressure applied to a respective surface area of the support and providing a respective output, each surface area being less than the contact area, and the surface areas being arranged so that at least one of the surface areas can be completely covered by the tire; and
(iii) processing means for processing the outputs of the sensors (a) to select which of the sensors has a surface area that falls within the contact area and (b) to determine the inflation pressure of the tire to a first order of accuracy from the output or outputs of the selected sensor or sensors disregarding the output or outputs of the other sensor or sensors.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus is capable of determining inflation pressure of a pneumatic tire mounted on the wheel of a vehicle, the tire being in contact with a support over a contact area. The apparatus comprises: (i) sensing means comprising one or more sensors within said support, each sensor being adapted to measure the average contact pressure over the sensor between said tire and said support, and each having a surface area less than the said contact area; and (ii) processing means adapted to determine an average contact pressure between said tire and said support from an output of only a sensor or sensors which fall entirely within said contact area so as to provide a measure of the inflation pressure of the tire to a first order of accuracy. A corresponding method is also disclosed.
25 Citations
13 Claims
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1. An apparatus for determining inflation pressure of a pneumatic tire mounted on a wheel of a vehicle, the apparatus comprising:
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(i) a support for supporting the tire such that the tire is in contact with the support over a contact area;
(ii) a plurality of sensors within the support each for measuring the pressure applied to a respective surface area of the support and providing a respective output, each surface area being less than the contact area, and the surface areas being arranged so that at least one of the surface areas can be completely covered by the tire; and
(iii) processing means for processing the outputs of the sensors (a) to select which of the sensors has a surface area that falls within the contact area and (b) to determine the inflation pressure of the tire to a first order of accuracy from the output or outputs of the selected sensor or sensors disregarding the output or outputs of the other sensor or sensors. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of determining inflation pressure of a pneumatic tire mounted on a wheel of a vehicle, the method comprising:
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(i) supporting the tire in contact with a support over a contact area;
(ii) measuring the pressure applied to each of a plurality of surface areas of the support, each surface area being less than the contact area, and the surface areas being arranged so that at least one of the surface areas can be completely covered by the tire; and
(iii) processing the measured pressures (a) to select which of surface areas falls within the contact area and (b) to determine the inflation pressure of the tire to a first order of accuracy from the measured pressures for the selected surface areas disregarding the measured pressures for the other surface areas. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification