Tire pressure monitoring device having power supplied by magnetic induction

• US 8,707,776 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2009
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Knorr-Bremse Systeme Fur Nutzfahrzeuge GMBH (Estate of Heinz Hermann Thiele)
• Original Assignee: Knorr-Bremse Systeme Fur Nutzfahrzeuge GMBH (Estate of Heinz Hermann Thiele)
• Inventors: Fischer, Uwe
• Primary Examiner(s): Caputo, Lisa
• Assistant Examiner(s): JENKINS, JERMAINE L
• Application Number:
  US12/998,353
• Publication Number:
  US 20120000277A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,644 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 73/146.3
• CPC Class Codes: B60C 23/041 Means for supplying power to the signal- transmitting means on the wheel

Abstract

A vehicle having a device for acquiring and transmitting at least one measurement signal that characterizes the state of a vehicle tire, such as tire air pressure and/or tire air temperature, having at least one sensor module that is supplied with electrical energy by an energy supply device and that contains at least one tire air pressure sensor and/or at least one tire air temperature sensor, the energy supply device having at least one generator that rotates with the vehicle tire as well as at least one magnetic field generator, an electrical voltage being produced in the generator by electromagnetic induction. The magnetic field generator is situated on a brake caliper of a disc brake of the vehicle.

Claims

1. A vehicle, comprising:

a device for acquiring and transmitting at least one measurement signal that characterizes the state of a vehicle tire, including at least one of a tire air pressure and a tire air temperature, including;

at least one sensor module that is supplied with electrical energy by an energy supply device, wherein the energy supply device includes a generator that rotates together with a tire of the vehicle;

at least one of;

at least one tire air pressure sensor and at least one tire air temperature sensor; and

at least one magnetic field generator, an electrical voltage being produced in the generator by electromagnetic induction, wherein the magnetic field generator is situated on a radially outer circumferential surface of a brake caliper of a disc brake of the vehicle.

2. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the generator is situated outside a compressed air chamber formed between the vehicle tire and the wheel rim bearing the tire, and is situated in the region of or on a radially inner circumferential surface of a rim base of the wheel rim, in a position that overlaps with the magnetic field generator, viewed in the radial direction.

3. The vehicle of claim 2, wherein the rim base of the wheel rim has a radial through-opening for the mounting of at least one of at least the sensor module and of the generator on the rim base of the wheel rim.

4. The vehicle of claim 3, wherein at least one of the sensor module and the generator is borne in a module bearer mounted in the through-opening of the rim base of the wheel rim.

5. The vehicle of claim 4, wherein the generator is connected, via the module bearer, to the sensor module situated in the compressed air chamber.

6. The vehicle of claim 4, wherein the sensor module is likewise situated, via the module bearer mounted in the through-opening of the rim base of the wheel rim, in the region of or on the radially inner circumferential surface of the rim base of the wheel rim, and is connected to the compressed air chamber in a pressure-conducting fashion via the module bearer.

7. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the sensor module forms, together with a valve of the vehicle tire, a constructive unit that is accommodated in a valve receptacle of a wheel rim.

8. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the generator contains at least one electric coil.

9. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the magnetic field generator contains at least one permanent magnet.

10. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the magnetic field generator contains at least one electromagnet.

11. The vehicle of claim 10, wherein at least one of a coil of the electromagnet and a power supply line of the electromagnet act as an antenna for the data transmission of the measurement signals that characterize the tire state to a receive device.

12. The vehicle of claim 11, wherein the generator and the energy storage device are integrated in the sensor module.

13. The vehicle of claim 1, wherein the electrical voltage induced in the generator produces an electric current for charging an energy storage device.

14. The vehicle of claim 13, wherein the energy storage device includes at least one accumulator or at least one capacitor.

15. A vehicle, comprising:

a device for acquiring and transmitting at least one measurement signal that characterizes the state of a vehicle tire, including at least one of a tire air pressure and a tire air temperature, including;

at least one sensor module that is supplied with electrical energy by an energy supply device, wherein the energy supply device includes a generator that rotates together with a tire of the vehicle,

at least one of;

at least one tire air pressure sensor and at least one tire air temperature sensor, and

at least one magnetic field generator, an electrical voltage being produced in the generator by electromagnetic induction, wherein the magnetic field generator is situated on a brake caliper of a disc brake of the vehicle,

wherein the generator is situated outside a compressed air chamber formed between the vehicle tire and the wheel rim bearing the tire, and is situated in the region of or on a radially inner circumferential surface of a rim base of the wheel rim, in a position that overlaps with the magnetic field generator, viewed in the radial direction,

wherein the rim base of the wheel rim has a radial through-opening for the mounting of at least one of at least the sensor module and of the generator on the rim base of the wheel rim,

wherein at least one of the sensor module and the generator is borne in a module bearer mounted in the through-opening of the rim base of the wheel rim,

wherein the generator is connected, via the module bearer, to the sensor module situated in the compressed air chamber, and

wherein the generator is mounted at an end of the module bearer situated in the region of the through-opening, and the sensor module is mounted at an end of the module bearer protruding into the compressed air chamber, the sensor module and the generator being connected to one another by at least one electrical line that runs inside the module bearer.

16. The vehicle of claim 15, wherein the module bearer (38) contains a hollow screw held in the through-opening (36) of the rim base (34) of the wheel rim (4) by a threaded connection.

17. The vehicle of claim 15, wherein the sensor module, the module bearer, and the generator form a constructive unit mounted releasably in the through-opening in the rim base of the wheel rim.