Gard, Inc.

US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Irvin R Kraska

Wieslaw L Lichodziejewski

Richard N Johnson

John Stark

David Leo Gamache

Thomas A Mathieson

Leon Ash

A system, preferably a pulse echo reflection system, for residual tire life prediction by ultrasound includes: a transmitter transducer; means to provide pulses of electrical energy to the transmitter transducer, that converts the electrical pulses into pulses of ultrasonic vibrations and transmits them into an area of the plycontaining portion of the carcass of a tire, having a number of plies in the carcass, to be tested; clock means to control the frequency of the electrical pulses; a receiver transducer mounted relative to the transmitter transducer to receive ultrasonic energy reflected by the tire; amplifier means connected to the receiver transducer to receive reflected ultrasonic energy from different levels within that portion of the carcass of the tire, including reflected ultrasonic energy from plies of the carcass of the tire; processing means having an input connected to the amplifier; and gate means responsive to the clock means to provide, after a delay following each electrical pulse, a time-gated signal from the output of the amplifier means to the input of the processing means that, for each ultrasonic pulse to the tire, includes only the amplified signals corresponding to the reflected ultrasonic energy from a level adjacent but outwardly of the outermost ply of that portion of the carcass of the tire to a level inwardly of at least the outermost ply of that portion of the carcass. The processing means is constructed to provide a signal indicative of ply degradation or separation based on the time-gated signal.

System for residual tire life prediction by ultrasound

A residual tire life prediction system uses a clock to trigger a bang generator that provides pulses of electrical energy to a pulse-echo transducer. The transducer converts pulses of electrical energy to pulses of ultrasonic vibration. The transducer is located on the tread of a steel belted tire to transmit pulses of ultrasonic energy into the tire and to receive reflected ultrasonic energy from plies of the tire casing. The transducer converts the reflected ultrasonic energy to provide bursts of electrical signals. The transducer is connected to a time varying gain control circuit that has its output connected via a full-wave rectifier to a first gate and to an input of a voltage level detector. The clock is also connected to a first time-delay circuit that is operative after a delay, subsequent to the pulse of the bang generator, to enable a second gate, connected to the output of the voltage level detector, that provides a signal, when it receives the signal based on the reflection from the outer steel belt, to a second time-delay circuit that provides an enable signal at its output after a predetermined delay for a predetermined period of time to the first gate to open it for passage of signals from the rectifier to a peak sensing device that provides an output signal to a digital panel meter for display of the value of the maximum amplitude passing through the first gate.

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Lansing, IL, United States of America

Irvin R Kraska