Bridgestone Corporation

Kabushiki Kaisha Bridgestone

Other

Takao Kokubu

Tomoyuki Kaneko

Hiromasa Hada

Norimichi Uchida

Hiromitsu Ichikawa

Masaharu Oku

Shigeru Yamaguchi

Yoshiaki Hirata

Hiroki Kunitake

Kazuhide Kinoshita

Takahiro Goto

Takao Kimijima

Katsutoshi Nakashima

Tokuhiro Murayama

Toru Kitajima

Tsutomu Noshiroya

Hirotaka Iino

Tetsuya Sukegawa

Tsuneo Kobayashi

Yasunao Miyazawa

Identification information for identifying a tire, a tire inner pressure and a tire inner temperature are sent to a tire checking device from a first electronic device provided within a tire and measured results are shown on a display. Groove depth data from a depth meter are also received by the tire checking device and shown on the display. The tire checking device stores received management information such as a tire inner pressure, a tire inner temperature, a groove depth and so on in a memory with associating them with each tire. The stored management information is extracted by a control unit if required and shown on the display. Therefore, a tire inner pressure and a tire inner temperature are detected automatically and groove depth data are stored with being associated with each tire, and thereby the tire inner pressure, the tire inner temperature and the groove depth data can be displayed.

Tire checking device, tire checking system and tire checking method

An elastic memberpositioned between an inner surface of a casingand a front face of a pressure sensing portionof a pressure sensorreduces a possibility of liquid and foreign matters in a tire directly reaching the pressure sensing portion. The elastic member also increases adhesiveness between the pressure sensing portionof the pressure sensorand a labyrinth structure and further prevents a potting agentfrom flowing into the sensing portion. Moreover, the elastic memberis a member constituting at least a part of the labyrinth structure, so that it does not need that a wall is provided on the pressure sensorand a dedicated seal member is provided on the pressure sensing portion

Tire internal pressure alarm device

Disclosed is a tire surface inspecting technique capable of surely discriminating rubber pieces of a quality different from that of a tire embedded in the surface of the tire by vulcanization from the tire. A first illuminating unitinclude paired first light projectorsandthat project light respectively from opposite sides toward an objective line L on a tire T. A second illuminating unitinclude paired second light projectorsandthat project light respectively from opposite sides toward the objective line L in a direction different from that in which the first illuminating unitproject light. The first illuminating unitand the second illuminating unitoperate alternately for illumination. The line cameraforms an image of a part of the surface of the tire corresponding to the objective line L in synchronism with the respective illuminating operations of the first and second illuminating unit. Illumination and image formation are repeated for different parts of the surface of the tire that are moved successively to a position corresponding to the objective line L. Images formed by the line camera are analyzed for the inspection of the surface of the tire T.

Method and system for inspecting tire surface

A split mold for vulcanizing a tire is held at a mold holding section, which is held on a rotatable base, and then a measuring section measures distances to an inner surface of the split mold in the inside diameter direction and in the axial direction. An operating section acquires two-dimensional geometric data of the inner surface of the split mold from the distances measured above, and further acquires geometric data over the entire circumference by rotating the rotatable base, and the data are combined to acquire three-dimensional geometric data of the inner surface of the split mold and make reference geometric data for tire inspection.

Device and method for generating reference geometric data for tire inspection

A tire sensor device comprising sensor modulesA toD, each comprising a sensor, a communication module having a communication function and a power regenerating circuit, and an antenna; and a base station comprising an internal communication device for communication with the sensor modulesA toD, an information processing device for processing tire information signals from the sensor modules, an external communication device for communicating with a car control deviceon the car body side and a power source. The sensor modulesA toD and the base stationare arranged in the tire and constitute an intra-tire LAN. Tire information signals transmitted from the sensor modulesA toD are processed by the base stationand transmitted to the car control deviceso that appropriate tire information can be obtained and the size and power consumption of the sensor device can be reduced.

Tire sensor device and tire information transmission method

The present invention includes a sensor malfunction determination unitdetects the pressure value corresponding to a signal outputted by a pressure sensorcapable of measuring the internal pressure of a pneumatic tire. When the detected pressure value is decreasing along the time axis, the sensor malfunction determination unitdetermines that the pressure sensoris not malfunctioning.

Sensor malfunction determination device and sensor malfunction determination method

A tire T as a workpiece mounted on a rotary tableis imaged by using floodlight meansfor applying white slit light and a color CCD camerafor imaging a portion illuminated by the slit light while it is turned, the coordinates and brightness of the tire T are detected from the obtained image data by coordinate computing meansand brightness computing means, and the 3-D coordinate data and color image of the tire T are re-formed from the obtained shape data and brightness data of the tire T by shape image forming meansand appearance image forming meansand compared with tire appearance and shape data prestored in tire information storage meansto judge whether the appearance and shape of the tire T are acceptable or not.

Method and apparatus for detecting a workpiece, and method and apparatus for inspecting a workpiece

A pneumatic-tire-use electronic-device fixing system according to the present invention includes: an electronic-device housing apparatus, which houses the electronic device, and which includes an engaging convex portionthat is convex; and an electronic-device housing apparatus support, which is provided on an inner surface of the pneumatic tire, and which includes an engaging concave portion that is concave. First pullout suppression means which suppresses pullout of the engaging convex portion from the engaging concave portion is provided on at least a part of a surface of the engaging convex portion, and second pullout suppression means which engages with the first pullout suppression means is provided on at least a part of a surface of the engaging concave portion. According to the present invention, it becomes possible to provide a pneumatic-tire-use electronic-device fixing system, a pneumatic tire, and an electronic-device housing apparatus, which are capable of securely fixing the pneumatic-tire-use electronic device, and also capable of suppressing breakage of a fixing portion for fixing a pneumatic-tire-use electronic device.

Pneumatic-tire-use electronic-device fixing system, and electronic-device housing apparatus

An X-ray tire inspection apparatus comprising X-ray tubesandfor applying an X-ray to a tire, installed right above the opposite ends of the tireconveyed by a roll conveyor, and X-ray line sensorsandarranged in the space between adjacent rollsR andR below the above roll conveyorat positions corresponding to the above X-ray tubesand, respectively, wherein transmission X-ray images of left half and right half portions of the tireare taken by the X-ray line sensorsandand combined by tire internal image inspection meansto obtain a transmission X-ray composite image of the whole tire. Therefore, even a tire having a low aspect ratio can be internally inspected accurately and efficiently.

Method and device for X-ray inspection of tire

A measurement value output device including measuring unit such as current measuring unit () for metering an AC current running through the power line () of a motor (), a detection circuit () for detecting the above measurement value by amplifying the above measured current value, a signal converting unit () for converting the detected measurement value into a time interval (duration) and an ON/OFF signal output unit () for outputting an ON/OFF signal which is kept ON or OFF for the above time interval at predetermined time intervals and outputs the measurement value such as the motor current of a production line used to monitor a measurement value at predetermined time intervals as a pulse signal (digital signal) having a pulse width corresponding to the above measurement value at predetermined time intervals.

Measurement value output device, measurement value monitoring device, current value output device and current monitoring device

There is disclosed an apparatus in which when a surface having a curved portion, for example, a tire surface is visually inspected, light is uniformly illuminated on the surface. In this apparatus, an image pickup operation is performed by a CCD for a region to be visually inspected, which is illuminated by turning on LEDs. Based on the image pickup result, a density distribution of the region to be visually inspected is prepared. A difference between a target light quantity and light quantity, which is obtained for each field angle of the density distribution at which the region to be visually inspected is illuminated by each light source unit, is calculated and corrected. This correction allows the quantity of light reflected from the region to be visually inspected on the inner peripheral surface to become uniform.

Illuminating apparatus and method for illuminating a curved surface

The present invention discloses a tire chuck apparatus for holding a tire having a tire bead. The apparatus comprises: a gripping mechanism with at least two gripping members movable in tire radial direction from a retracted position to an extended position for pressing against the inner side of the bead portion of the tire, thereby holding the tire; gripping rollers as the gripping members adapted to be rotatable around an axis substantially parallel to a central axis of the tire; and a rotation drive mechanism for rotating the tire around the central axis of the tire. According to this apparatus, even if the center of the tire and the center of the chuck are out of alignment with each other, by rotating the gripping rollers so as to rotate the tire, the tire is shifted so that the center thereof is aligned with the center of the chuck apparatus, thus reducing mispositioning.

Tire chuck apparatus and method

A method and an apparatus for inspecting appearance and shape of a subject body is provided. Installation cost and installation space are reduced, working efficiency is superior and judgement accuracy is high. A first picture taking structure takes a picture of a linear portion of a subject body lighted by a first slit light to obtain appearance data, and a second picture taking structure takes a picture of the same linear portion lighted by a second slit light to obtain shape data. The quality of appearance and shape of the subject body is judged based on the appearance data and the shape data.

Method and apparatus for inspecting appearance and shape of subject body

First, a sample holder is lowered such that a sample is held. Next, a roller or a plate-shaped member is lowered and pressed to an adhesive surface A of a sample At this time, a tape is disposed between the roller or the plate-shaped member and the adhesive surface A of the sample and a fixed pressure load is applied to the sample Then after a fixed period of time has passed, the tape 23 is pulled from the sample by the raising of the roller or the plate-shaped member and an adhesive strength is measured with a load cell according to the tension of the tape at that time. After measuring, a take-up reel is rotated so as to wind up a predetermined pitch of the tape and an unused portion of the tape is reeled out to the tip of the roller or the plate-shaped member

Device and method for measuring adhesive strength

A tire interior inspecting method irradiates a tire being continuously conveyed by a conveyor with x-rays emitted from a predetermined position, receives the x-rays penetrated through the tire by a high resolution linear x-ray sensor to obtain x-ray information about the tire, compares the x-ray information with normal tire image information about the metallic components of a normal tire, removes parts of the x-ray image information coinciding with the normal tire image information, and decides the quality of interior of the tire on the basis of image information obtained by removing parts of the x-ray image information coinciding with the normal timer image information.

Growing community of inventors

Kodaira, Japan

Takao Kokubu