Compagnie Generale Des Etablissements Michelin

Michelin Recherche Et Technique S.a.

Gene Edward De Amicis

Frank E Gramling

David Andrew Judd

Bradley D Schober

Verner Steve Nicholson

Julien Matthieu Flament

Anton Felipe Thomas

Patrice R Estor

A tire surface anomaly detection system and method are disclosed. The system and method are generally based on the principle that a tire surface anomaly will have a different heat transfer rate than that of the uniform mass surrounding the tire surface anomaly. Embodiments of the present disclosure apply thermal energy to the surface of a tire and monitor the infrared energy at the surface of the tire to generate one or more infrared images of the surface of the tire. The infrared images are analyzed by an image processing system to determine and locate thermal gradients on the surface of the tire. The presence of a thermal gradient in the infrared images generally indicates the presence of an anomaly in the surface of the tire. In this manner, the present disclosure provides an objective technique for identifying, locating, and classifying tire surface anomalies.

Tire surface anomaly detection

Growing community of inventors

Mt. Pleasant, SC, United States of America

Gene Edward De Amicis