Bandag Incorporated

Doyle L Dugger

Morris D Ho

A pulsed through-transmission ultrasonic non-destructive inspection of the internal structure in a tire wall is effected. The ultrasonic inspection is preferably carried out through the walls of a rotating inflated tire with the ultrasonic transducers being automatically moved toward the inner and outer tire wall surfaces to optimum relative distances of separation during an inspection cycle. The transducers disposed inside the inflated tire are preferably mounted for automatic retraction into a protected space during tire mounting and demounting operations. Such ultrasonic inspection techniques may be combined with conventional tire buffing methods and apparatus as practiced in tire retreading operations.

Method and apparatus for non-destructive inspection of tires

A machine is shown for building a reenforced industrial hose for liquids and certain solids by wrapping a plurality of layers of different materials, including an uncured resin, on a rotating mandrel to form a laminated structure that may be cured in situ on the mandrel. The mandrel is rotated and a carriage moves alongside the mandrel to feed the several layers of materials forming the laminations onto the surface of the mandrel. The movement of the carriage is precisely coordinated with the rotation of the mandrel so that the edges of a resin or an uncured rubber strip and the steel wires forming the successive layers can be wrapped onto the mandrel, with the rubber strip material and the wires being laid on the mandrel in either a precise angle mode or an exact pitch mode. The pitch of the laydown of the strips of the successive rubber and the wire layers is controlled by regulating the movement of the carriage along a path parallel to the axis of the rotating mandrel and the machine is designed to automatically control these relative movements during the laydown of the layers during the constant angle mode of application by compensating for the changing diameter of the successive layers as the several laminations are built up to form the ultimate hose structure.

Hose building machine

A pulsed through-transmission ultrasonic non-destructive inspection of the internal structure in a tire wall is effected. The transmitted acoustic signals preferably have a frequency of least 40 Khz, are transduced to electrical form, amplified with a relatively long time constant AGC, rectified and integrated during only the initial or leading edge portions of each pulse or burst. The resulting integrated analog signal values thus provided have relative magnitudes which may be displayed or otherwise processed to detect structural anomalies within the tire wall. If plural acoustic transmitters are utilized, they are preferably multiplexed such that only a single transducer is activated at a given time. The ultrasonic inspection is preferably carried out through the walls of a rotating inflated tire with the ultrasonic transducers being automatically moved toward the inner and outer tire wall surfaces to optimum relative distances of separation during an inspection cycle. The transducers disposed inside the inflated tire are preferably mounted for automatic retraction into a protected space during tire mounting and demounting operations. Such ultrasonic inspection techniques may be combined with conventional tire buffing methods and apparatus as practiced in tire retreading operations.

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Muscatine, IA, United States of America

Doyle L Dugger