Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC

Thomas A Sams

Terence Eugene Wei

Jason R Barr

Srikrishna Doraiswamy

Timothy J Hanchin

Craig R Balnis

Hans R Dorfi

Adrian C Stalnaker

Anoop G Varghese

Prashanta Gautam

A system for powering an electronic device within a tire is provided, the system comprising: a generator electrically connected to an electrically conductive wheel, the tire being mounted upon the wheel; the tire including bead portions, sidewalls, shoulders, a tread oriented in a tread region, and an inner surface; at least one conductive element extending from a bead portion, and in contact with the inner surface along a sidewall, along a shoulder, and terminating in the tread region; at least one electronic device within the vehicle tire; and at least one ground path extending through a thickness of the vehicle tire from the inner surface to an exterior surface in a contact patch of the tread; and wherein the at least one electronic device is electrically connected to the at least one conductive element and the at least one ground path.

System and method for harvesting energy for an electronic device, and a tire configured for use with the same

Tire cooling systems operatively disposed along a vehicle body adjacent a vehicle tire include a deflector panel displaceable between retracted and deployed positions. In the retracted position, a first nominal volume of air flows along the vehicle tire during operation. In the deployed position, a second nominal volume of air that is greater than the first nominal volume of air is directed along the vehicle tire. An actuator is selectively operable to displace the deflector panel between the retracted and deployed positions. A sensor registers data having a relation to a physical characteristic or health condition of the vehicle tire. A controller executes instructions to determine using the data whether or not the physical characteristic of the vehicle tire exceeds a predetermined threshold as well as control displacement of the deflector panel. Vehicles including tire cooling systems and method of operation are also included.

Tire cooling systems as well as vehicles and methods including same

A system and method are provided for efficiently estimating vehicle tire wear. Vehicle kinetics (first) data are provided via one or more sensors associated with the vehicle and/or at least one associated tire. The vehicle kinetics data are locally processed to compress or otherwise generate second data as a reduced subset thereof, said second data representative of the first data and comprising any one or more predetermined wear-specific features extracted therefrom. The second data are selectively transmitted via a communications network to a remote computing system, which processes the second data to estimate a wear characteristic for the at least one tire. Alternatively, the second data processed to generate third data as a reconstruction of the first data, and the third data and the any one or more extracted features are processed to estimate a wear characteristic for the at least one tire.

System and method for feature extraction from real-time vehicle kinetics data for remote tire wear modeling

A system and method are provided for estimating progression in vehicle tire wear. A tread depth is stored at a first (e.g., initial or unworn) stage for a given tire, along with a first set of modal frequencies for the tire. At a later (e.g., worn) stage, for example in concert with a controlled excitation of tire structural modes, a second set of corresponding modal frequencies are sensed for the tire, and a tire wear status of the tire is determined at the second stage based on a calculated frequency shift between at least one corresponding modal frequency from each of the first and second sets. In one example, an initial mass of the tire is stored, and a change in mass is calculated based on the calculated frequency shift. Alternatively, a correlation of modal frequency shift may be performed with respect to tread depth for a given tire.

System and method for predicting wear progression for vehicle tires

A system and method are provided for estimating and applying vehicle tire traction. Vehicle data (e.g., movement and location-based data) and tire sensor data are collected at a vehicle and transmitted to a remote computing system (e.g., cloud server). A wear status is determined, and traction characteristics determined for at least one tire, based at least on the vehicle data and the determined tire wear status. The predicted tire traction characteristics are transmitted from the remote computing system to an active safety unit associated with the vehicle, or a fleet management system, wherein the recipient is configured to modify vehicle operation settings based on at least the predicted tire traction characteristics. A maximum speed for the vehicle may be defined by the recipient, or a minimum following distance where, e.g., the vehicle is one of multiple vehicles in a defined platoon.

System and method for predicting tire traction capabilities and active safety applications

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for estimating tread depth remaining on a tire mounted on a vehicle. One or more sensors are provided for detecting operational data associated with the vehicle and tire measurements corresponding to ambient temperature and contained air temperature, which may be directly measured or derived from measured tire pressure. A thermal mass of the tire is estimated based on at least the detected operational data and tire conditions, and a current tread depth of the tire is estimated based at least in part on the respective estimated thermal mass. In certain embodiments, the thermal mass estimation may be performed using heat transfer models limited to measurements captured during a cooling down phase of the tire while the vehicle is not moving, thereby simplifying calculation of a corresponding time constant.

Estimating tread depth remaining on vehicle-mounted tire by estimating thermal mass of tire based on detected changes in detected operational data and tire condition data over time

A computer-implemented method as disclosed enables predicting of vertical loads on a vehicle tire. Thermal characteristics for a particular vehicle-tire combination are retrievably stored, the thermal characteristics determined as corresponding to a range of temperature values further correlated with a plurality of operating conditions, and the plurality of operating conditions comprising at least a vertical load. A model for predicting transient temperature behavior is generated (e.g., empirically trained) based on one or more tire-specific time constants. During operation of the vehicle-tire combination and responsive to at least a first temperature value, a computing device residing on the vehicle or otherwise cloud-based in nature is configured to determine a predicted vertical load based on a predicted second temperature value from the model and further based on the retrievably stored one or more thermal characteristics.

System and method for tire vertical load prediction

A system for powering an electronic device within a tire is provided, the system comprising: a generator; an electrically conductive wheel coated in a non-conductive coating, the wheel including rim lips, wherein one of the rim lips includes a conductive area; the tire including bead portions, sidewalls, shoulders, a tread oriented in a tread region, and an inner surface; a conductive element extending from a bead portion, and in contact with the inner surface; an electronic device within the vehicle tire; and a ground path extending through a thickness of the vehicle tire from the inner surface to an exterior surface in a contact patch of the tread; wherein the generator is electrically connected to the electrically conductive wheel; wherein the electronic device is electrically connected to the conductive element and the ground path; and wherein the conducive element contacts the conductive area.

Methods for increasing the read range of an electronic communication module within a tire and methods for improving the read range of an electronic communication module within a tire are provided herein. As discussed further herein, the read range can be improved by applying strain to the tire without circumferentially contacting the outer surface of its tread, resulting in an increase in the same-distance-signal-strength of 5% or more. Also provided are tires made according to the disclosed methods.

Post-cure read range enhancement of RFID tire tags

An assembly for mounting an electronics package to a tire includes an electronics package, a mount with a peripheral flange, and an attachment patch. The electronics package is connected to the mount, which is in contact with the tire. The attachment patch is connected to the mount and includes a central opening that it smaller than the peripheral flange. The attachment patch is further affixed to the tire.

Attachment mechanism for tire-mounted sensors

Various method for repairing a tire tread are provided. In one embodiment, a method for repairing a tire tread comprises: providing a tire having a tire tread portion wherein the tire tread portion includes a tread element that is at least one of a tread block and a tread rib, and wherein the tread element includes a void resulting from wear or damage of the tire tread portion; removing a material from at least a portion of the tread element adjacent to the void to create a removed material portion, wherein the removed material portion includes a specific shape corresponding to a replacement element; applying an adhesive to at least one surface of the removed material portion; applying the replacement element to the removed material portion; and curing the adhesive.

Method for repairing tire tread

A system for powering an electronic device within a tire is provided, the system comprising: a generator electrically connected to an electrically conductive wheel, the tire being mounted upon the wheel; the tire including bead portions, sidewalls, shoulders, a tread oriented in a tread region, an inner surface, and a metallic cord oriented within an interior of the tire; at least one conductive element extending from a bead portion and piercing into the interior of the tire and electrically connecting to the metallic cord; at least one electronic device within the vehicle tire; and at least one ground path extending through a thickness of the vehicle tire from the inner surface to an exterior surface in a contact patch of the tread; and wherein the at least one electronic device is electrically connected to the metallic cord and the at least one ground path.

A tire includes an electronic device, such as a RFID chip, within the body of the tire. For particular embodiments, a RFID chip is disposed within a tire belt. The RFID chip may be disposed on an inner or outer belt. The RFID chip is connected to at least one steel cords forming an antenna for the RFID chip. The steel cords are disposed at a first angle and second angle with respect to the tire equator. A method of joining the RFID chip to a tire cord is also provided.

Tire with electronic device having a reinforcing cord antenna

Methods for increasing the read range of an electronic communication module within a tire and methods for improving the read range of an electronic communication module within a tire are provided herein. As discussed further herein, the read range can be increased by applying strain to the tire without abrading its tread, resulting in an increase in read range of 20% or more. Similarly, the read range can be improved by applying strain to the tire without circumferentially contacting the outer surface of its tread, resulting in an increase in the same-distance-signal-strength of 5% or more. Also provided are tires made according to the disclosed methods.

Growing community of inventors

Hartville, OH, United States of America

Thomas A Sams