Apparatus for monitoring tread thickness during tire buffing
AssigneeMichelin Recherche et Technique S.A.
InventorsNicholas P. Marck, Fred G. Mayntz, Robert G. Young
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for monitoring the depth of tread on a tire being buffed includes a sensing device, for example, a magnetic sensor, mounted to a reciprocating motion carrier. The carrier is driven by a drive wheel that is in contact with the tire being buffed. The carrier is movably mounted to float over the surface of the tire, that is, accommodate variations in the tire surface, with a guide wheel following the tire surface to maintain the sensor at a constant distance from the tire surface. The sensor on the carrier reciprocally traverses the crown of the tire as the tire rotates to obtain actual values for the thickness of the rubber above the belts over the whole surface of the crown.
Claims12
An apparatus for monitoring a tire crown while buffing a tire on a buffing machine, comprising:
- a frame mountable to the buffing machine;
- a drive wheel mounted to the frame for contact with a crown surface of a rotating tire;
- a reciprocal motion device mounted to the frame and driven by the drive wheel that provides reciprocal motion transverse to the tire crown;
- and
- a sensing device carried by the reciprocal motion device for sensing the location of a belt in the tire relative to the crown surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.