Tire defect detection system and method
AssigneeFoster-Miller, Inc.
InventorsFrank J. Heirtzler, Wayne S. Hill
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A tire defect detection system including a support structure for receiving a tire; an actuator disposed proximate the tire for impacting the tire; a microphone disposed proximate the actuator for receiving a sound wave generated when the actuator impacts the tire; and a computer responsive to the microphone, the computer programmed to calculate a number of discriminator quantities from the resulting sound wave and to compare the calculated discriminator quantities with stored discriminator quantities indicative of a defect to determine whether a defect is present in the tire.
Claims33
A tire defect detection system comprising:
- a support structure for receiving a tire;
- an actuator disposed proximate the tire for impacting the tire;
- a microphone disposed proximate the actuator for receiving a sound wave generated when the actuator impacts the tire;
- and
- a computer responsive to the microphone;
- the computer including:
- means for calculating a plurality of discriminator quantities from the sound wave, and
- means for comparing the calculated discriminator quantities with stored discriminator quantities indicative of a defect to determine whether a defect is present in the tire.
A tire defect detection system comprising:
- an actuator for impacting the tire;
- a microphone disposed proximate the actuator for receiving a sound wave generated when the actuator impacts the tire;
- and
- a computer responsive to the microphone, the computer programmed to:
- perform an FFT transform for the sound wave, calculate a plurality of discriminator quantities from the FFT transform, and
- construct a defect transfer function based on the calculated discriminator quantities to provide an indication of whether a defect is present in the tire.
A method of inspecting tires for defects, the method comprising:
- obtaining a tire with known defects;
- impacting the tire with an actuator;
- recording the resulting sound waves;
- calculating a plurality of discriminator quantities for each sound wave;
- constructing a defect transfer function based on the calculated discriminator quantities and storing the coefficients thereof;
- obtaining a tire with unknown defects;
- impacting the unknown tire with an actuator;
- recording the resulting sound waves;
- calculating a plurality of discriminator quantities for each sound wave;
- and
- using the stored coefficients of the constructed defect transfer function to determine whether a defect is present in the tire with unknown defects.
A tire defect detection method comprising:
- disposing an actuator proximate the tire and impacting the tire;
- disposing a microphone proximate the actuator for receiving a sound wave generated when the actuator impacts the tire;
- calculating a plurality of discriminator quantities from the sound wave;
- and
- comparing the calculated discriminator quantities with stored discriminator quantities indicative of a defect to determine whether a defect is present in the tire.
A tire defect detection method comprising:
- recording a sound wave generated when the tire is impacted;
- performing a FFT transform for the sound wave;
- calculating a plurality of discriminator quantities from the sound wave and FFT transform;
- and
- constructing a defect transfer function based on the calculated discriminator quantities to provide an indication of whether a defect is present in the tire.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.