Monitoring of wearing surface layer thickness

• US 7,509,834 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2005
• Issued: 03/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Marmigere, Gerard, Bauchot, Frederic
• Primary Examiner(s): Williams; Hezron
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHABMAN, MARK A
• Application Number:
  US11/255,390
• Publication Number:
  US 20060124214A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,258 Days
• Field of Search: 73/8, 731/46, 152/154.2
• US Class Current: 73/8
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 11/24 Wear-indicating arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 152/10027 with wear indicating feature

Abstract

A method and associated product for wear level determination. Data is received from at least one Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) tag within a thickness of a wearing surface layer of each product of at least one product. The wearing surface layer of each product is an outermost surface layer of each product. The wearing surface layer of each product is adapted to be worn away such that the thickness of the wearing surface layer is reduced as each product is being used. A measure of wear of the wearing surface layer of each product is determined.

Claims

1. A method of wear level determination, comprising:

distributing multiple Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) tags within a thickness of a wearing surface layer of a tire at an X coordinate and a Y coordinate, said X coordinate being a coordinate along a rotation axis of the tire, said Y coordinate being a coordinate along a radius of the tire, said wearing surface layer of the tire being an outermost surface layer of the tire, said multiple RFID tags and said wearing surface layer adapted to be worn away as the tire is being used such that the thickness of the wearing surface layer is reduced as the tire is being used, said multiple RFID tags consisting of a first plurality of RFID tags that have not been worn away, a second plurality of RFID tags that have been worn away, and a special RFID tag that has not been worn away;

after said distributing and after the tire has been mounted on a vehicle and after the second plurality of tags has been worn away and while the first plurality of tags has not been worn away and while the special RFID tag has not been worn away, receiving data from the first plurality of RFID tags and from a table in the special RFID tag; and

determining a measure of wear of the wearing surface layer of the tire from said received data, said determining the measure of wear comprising;

classifying, from the received data, the RFIDs of the first and second plurality of RFID tags into N sets of RFIDs such that N is at least 2, each set characterized by the X coordinate of all RFIDs in each set not deviating from each other by more than a predetermined threshold Sw, and wherein the special RFID stores an optimum maximum deviation among the X coordinates of all RFIDs in any same set of the N sets; and

for set i of the N sets (i=1, 2, . . . N), computing a measure of wear TW(i) via TW(i)=(YNmax(RFID(i))−

Ymax(RFID(i)))/YNmax(RFID(i)), wherein YNmax(RFID(i)) is a maximum Y coordinate of all RFIDs in set i and Ymax(RFID(i)) is a maximum Y coordinate of the RFIDs in set i that are comprised by the first plurality of RFID tags,

wherein the table in the special RFID tag comprises a first cell, a first plurality of rows, and a second plurality of rows;

wherein the first cell comprises an identifier of the tire;

wherein each row of the first plurality of rows corresponds to a RFID tag of the first plurality of RFID tags and comprises an identifier of its corresponding RFID tag and both the X coordinate and the Y coordinate of its corresponding RFID tag;

wherein each row of the second plurality of rows is associated with a RFID tag of the second plurality of RFID tags and comprises an identifier of its associated RFID tag, the X coordinate and the Y coordinate at which its associated RFID tag had been disposed in the wearing surface layer before being worn away, and a date and milage of the vehicle at which its associated RFID tag had been worn away.