Snap-On Equipment Srl a Unico Socio

Sigmavision Limited

Andrew Pryce

Kshitij Sisodia

Björn Gustafsson

Allen John Pearson

Bjorn Gustavsson

Björn Åke Gustafsson

A hand-held device for obtaining a three-dimensional topological surface profile of a tire, the device comprising: a base comprising an aperture; a light source arranged in use to generate an elongate pattern of light, and to project said pattern through the aperture onto a rolling surface of the tire; a detector arranged to image a region of the rolling surface of the tire; a plurality of pairs of guide wheels mounted on respective axles mounted on the base, wherein the guide wheels on adjacent axles are linked by gears; and a rotary encoder arranged to generate a signal corresponding to rotation of an axle.

Hand-held tire scanner and method for obtaining a three-dimensional surface profile of a tire

A method of generating a three-dimensional topological surface representation of a tyre on a vehicle, the method comprising: using a tread depth measurement device to record tread depth data for a tyre surface moving relative to the tread depth measurement device; generating a movement profile of the tyre surface; and using the movement profile of the tyre surface to map the tread depth data onto a base tyre structure, thereby generating a three-dimensional topological surface representation of the tyre.

Tread depth measurement

Hand-held tire scanner

A hand-held device for obtaining a three-dimensional topological surface profile of a tyre, the device comprising: a base comprising an aperture; a light source arranged in use to generate an elongate pattern of light, and to project said pattern through the aperture onto a rolling surface of the tyre; a detector arranged to image a region of the rolling surface of the tyre; a plurality of pairs of guide wheels mounted on respective axles mounted on the base, wherein the guide wheels on adjacent axles are linked by gears; and a rotary encoder arranged to generate a signal corresponding to rotation of an axle.

Hand-held tyre scanner

An apparatus measures the tread of a tire on a vehicle, in which a laser line generator () generates an elongate pattern of light. Mirrors () are arranged to reflect light from the laser line generator () onto the rolling surface of the tire. Mirrors () are arranged to reflect light from different regions of the rolling surface of the tire towards a camera (). The camera images the regions of the rolling surface of the tire. The apparatus may be hand-held or arranged such that a tire to be aged is driven onto or over it.

Growing community of inventors

Weston-on-the-Green, United Kingdom

Andrew Pryce