US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Gard, Inc.

Leon Ash

Richard N Johnson

Irvin R Kraska

Wieslaw L Lichodziejewski

David Leo Gamache

Thomas A Mathieson

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.

Growing community of inventors

Birmingham, MI, United States of America

Leon Ash