Vehicle wheel alignment measuring apparatus
First Claim
1. An apparatus for measuring the alignment of a vehicle wheel, in rotation, in a non-contact fashion, comprising:
- a laser light source for emitting a laser beam having a section of a geometric pattern toward at least the wheel side surface;
laser beam control means for controlling the width of said laser beam from said laser light source in such a manner as to radiate only a predetermined range of the wheel side surface;
a photodetecting device for receiving the laser beam controlled by said laser beam control means and reflected in said predetermined range of said wheel side surface and converting said laser beam into a corresponding image data; and
processing means for processing said image data and calculating said wheel alignment.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus for measuring the dynamic characteristics of the vehicle wheel alignment in non-contact fashion with high accuracy is disclosed. A laser light source (4) emits a laser beam of a predetermined geometric pattern toward the wheel side surface. A laser beam control device (6) controls the width of the laser beam in such a manner as to be radiated only in a predetermined range of the wheel side surface. Two laser light sources (120), (121) emit non-parallel laser beams. A photdetecting device (122) receives the two laser beams and converts them to two corresponding image data. A processing unit calculates the distance between the two images based on the two image data and calculates the wheel alignment based on the same distance.
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Citations
28 Claims
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1. An apparatus for measuring the alignment of a vehicle wheel, in rotation, in a non-contact fashion, comprising:
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a laser light source for emitting a laser beam having a section of a geometric pattern toward at least the wheel side surface;
laser beam control means for controlling the width of said laser beam from said laser light source in such a manner as to radiate only a predetermined range of the wheel side surface;
a photodetecting device for receiving the laser beam controlled by said laser beam control means and reflected in said predetermined range of said wheel side surface and converting said laser beam into a corresponding image data; and
processing means for processing said image data and calculating said wheel alignment. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 26, 27, 28)
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17. An alignment measuring apparatus for measuring the alignment of a vehicle wheel in rotation in a non-contact fashion, comprising:
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a laser light source for emitting a laser beam having a section of a geometric pattern toward at least the wheel side surface;
laser beam control means for controlling the width of said laser beam from said laser light source in such a manner as to radiate only a predetermined range of the wheel side surface;
a photodetecting device for receiving the laser beam controlled by said laser beam control means and reflected in said predetermined range of said wheel side surface and converting said laser beam into a corresponding image data; and
processing means for processing said image data and calculating said wheel alignment, wherein said laser beam control means is an electro-optic effect device for controlling the width of said laser beam in such a manner that the laser beam from said laser light source means is radiated only in a predetermined range on the wheel side surface, wherein said electro-optic effect device is a liquid crystal shutter for transmitting a part of said laser beam in accordance with an electrical control signal in such a manner that the laser beam from said laser light source means is radiated only in a predetermined range on the wheel side surface. - View Dependent Claims (18)
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19. An alignment measuring apparatus for measuring the alignment of a vehicle wheel, in rotation, in a non-contact fashion, comprising:
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a laser light source for emitting a laser beam having a section of a geometric pattern toward at least the wheel side surface;
laser beam control means for controlling the width of said laser beam from said laser light source in such a manner as to radiate only a predetermined range of the wheel side surface;
a photodetecting device for receiving the laser beam controlled by said laser beam control means and reflected in said predetermined range of said wheel side surface and converting said laser beam into a corresponding image data; and
processing means for processing said image data and calculating said wheel alignment, wherein said laser beam control means is an electro-optic effect device for controlling the width of said laser beam in such a manner that the laser beam from said laser light source means is radiated only in a predetermined range on the wheel side surface, wherein said electro-optic effect device is a silicon micromirror for reflecting a part of said laser beam in accordance with an electrical control signal in such a manner that the laser beam from said laser light source means is radiated only in a predetermined range on the wheel side surface.
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20. An alignment measuring apparatus for measuring the alignment of a vehicle wheel, in rotation, in a non-contact fashion, comprising:
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a laser light source for emitting a laser beam having a section of a geometric pattern toward at least the wheel side surface;
laser beam control means for controlling the width of said laser beam from said laser light source in such a manner as to radiate only a predetermined range of the wheel side surface;
a photodetecting device for receiving the laser beam controlled by said laser beam control means and reflected in said predetermined range of said wheel side surface and converting said laser beam into a corresponding image data; and
processing means for processing said image data and calculating said wheel alignment, wherein said laser beam control means is an electromagnetic effect device for reducing the width of said laser beam by an electrical signal in such a manner that the laser beam from said laser light source means is radiated only in a predetermined range on the wheel side surface, wherein said electromagnetic effect device is an iris shutter.
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21. An alignment measuring apparatus for measuring the alignment of a vehicle wheel in rotation in non-contact fashion, comprising:
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two laser light source means for emitting non-parallel laser beams having a section of a predetermined geometric pattern and forming a predetermined finite angle to each other toward different positions on at least the wheel side surface;
a photodetecting device for receiving the two laser beams emitted from said two laser light sources and reflected on said wheel side surface and converting said laser beams into two corresponding image data; and
processing means for calculating the distance between said two images based on said two image data and calculating said wheel alignment based on said distance.- View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification