Pirelli Tyre S.p.a.

Luca Tersi

Vincenzo Boffa

Valeriano Ballardini

Fabio Regoli

Marco Cantu'

Marco Cantu′

Stefano Monti

A station for checking a tyre for vehicle wheels. The checking station includes a background with a support surface lying on a plane perpendicular to a reference axis, an image acquisition apparatus to acquire an image of the tyre arranged with a first outer lateral surface in contact with the support surface and a second outer lateral surface facing the image acquisition apparatus, an illumination system and a computer for generating a working image from the acquired image. The image acquisition apparatus, the illumination system and of the background are arranged to generate a contrast, in the working image, between the entire second outer lateral surface of the tyre and an area circumferentially surrounding the tyre.

Station for checking tyres for vehicle wheels

A method for checking tyres. A shift is determined along an acquisition direction between an acquisition point on a surface of a tyre to be checked and a position occupied by the acquisition point following a rotation of the tyre about its rotation axis. A linear laser beam is projected on a linear portion of surface of the tyre, and propagates in a direction parallel to the acquisition direction. A matrix image of a matrix portion of surface of the tyre containing the linear portion of surface is acquired; the image containing a laser line reflected by the linear portion of surface. A sub-portion of the matrix image is determined as a function of the determined shift, containing the reflected laser line. The sub-portion of the matrix image is then processed to determine an elevation profile of the linear portion of surface.

Method for checking tires

A method for checking a tyre for vehicle wheels in a checking station. The checking station includes a background with a support surface lying on a plane perpendicular to a reference axis, an image acquisition apparatus to acquire an image of the tyre arranged with a first outer lateral surface in contact with the support surface and a second outer lateral surface facing the image acquisition apparatus, an illumination system and a computer for generating a working image from the acquired image. The image acquisition apparatus, the illumination system and of the background are arranged to generate a contrast, in the working image, between the entire second outer lateral surface of the tyre and an area circumferentially surrounding the tyre.

Method for checking tyres for vehicle wheels

Method and apparatus for checking tires for vehicle wheels. A tire to be checked is fed to a checking station. A sidewall of the tire lies on a supporting portion of a rotating table. The supporting portion lies on a plane while the rotating table has a rotation axis perpendicular to the plane. A centring operation is carried out to align, in the plane, the rotation axis of the tire with the rotation axis of the rotating table. The centring operation includes identification, in the plane, of the rotation axis of the tire by: a) acquisition of an image of the tire laid on the supporting portion of the rotating table; b) definition, in the acquired image, of a number of analysis directions intersecting at one selected central point; c) for each analysis direction: c1) definition, in the acquired image, of a number of potential axes of symmetry, perpendicular to the analysis direction; c2) calculation of a level of symmetry of the image with respect to each potential axis of symmetry, where the level of symmetry is indicative of the probability that the center of the tire is on the respective potential axis of symmetry; c3) determination of a probability distribution indicative of a variation of the level of symmetry along the analysis direction; d) determination of a center of the tire on the basis of a cumulative probability distribution obtained through a combination of the probability distributions calculated for the analysis directions; e) identification of the rotation axis of the tire in an axis that passes through the determined center and perpendicular to the plane.

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Imola, Italy

Luca Tersi