Tire tread gauge

Abstract

To provide a tire groove measuring instrument that simplifies the work of checking the groove depth of vehicle tires. [Solution] A tire groove measuring instrument 1 for measuring grooves in the tread of tires equipped on a target vehicle to be measured comprises a display panel 6, a lever pressed down by a user when measuring the groove depth, a measurement pin linked to the lever, a processing device for calculating the groove depth measurement results based on the displacement of the lever or the measurement pin, and a plurality of measurement buttons 31-34 provided corresponding to each tire equipped on the target vehicle, and the display panel comprises a first area 61 in which the measurement results are displayed, and a plurality of second areas 62a-62d provided corresponding to the vicinity of each of the measurement buttons, and by measuring the groove depth of a specified tire, the measurement results are displayed in the first area, and by pressing the measurement button corresponding to the specified tire, the measurement results displayed in the first area are transitioned and displayed in the second area corresponding to the measurement button that was pressed.

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a tire groove measuring device that measures the depth of a tread groove formed on the surface of a tire. [Background technology]

[0002] Tread grooves (hereinafter, simply referred to as grooves) are provided on the tread of tires mounted on vehicles such as automobiles. As the vehicle travels, the tire wears and the depth of the grooves becomes shallower, so it is necessary to measure the depth of the grooves and manage the condition of the tire.

[0003] In order to meet this demand, a gauge has been widely used in the past that includes a longitudinal measuring pin for measuring the groove depth by abutting its tip against the bottom surface of the tire groove, and a display unit that displays the most recent measurement result obtained using the measuring pin. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, for example, an automobile has four tires. When using the above-mentioned gauge, for example, if the tread depth of the right front tire is measured and then the tread depth of the right rear tire is measured, the display automatically shows only the most recent measurement result (the tread depth of the right rear tire). This means that the tread depth needs to be checked each time the tires are measured, making the task of checking tread depth cumbersome.

[0005] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a tire groove measuring device that makes it easy to check the tire groove depth of a vehicle. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above problems, the tire groove measuring device of the present invention is (1) a tire groove measuring device for measuring grooves in the tread of a tire equipped on a target vehicle that is to be measured, comprising: a display panel; a lever that is pressed down by a user when measuring the groove depth; a measurement pin that is linked to the lever; a processing device that calculates the groove depth measurement result based on the displacement of the lever or the measurement pin; and a plurality of measurement buttons provided corresponding to each tire equipped on the target vehicle, wherein the measurement pin is located in the center of the bottom surface of the tire groove measuring device, and the display panel comprises a first area in which the tire groove depth measurement result is displayed, and a plurality of second areas provided corresponding to each of the measurement buttons, each of the second areas being provided on the display panel near the corresponding measurement button, and wherein by measuring the groove depth of a specified tire of the target vehicle, the groove depth measurement result of the specified tire is displayed in the first area, and by pressing the measurement button corresponding to the specified tire, the measurement result displayed in the first area is transitioned to be displayed in the second area corresponding to the measurement button that was pressed.

[0007] (2) The tire groove measuring instrument described in (1) is characterized in that the processing device is equipped with a storage, the storage has a memory area for storing each tire groove depth displayed in each of the second areas, and by pressing the measurement button, the measurement result displayed in the second area corresponding to the measurement button that was pressed is stored in the memory area.

[0008] (3) The tire groove measuring instrument described in (2) is characterized in that a threshold value for tire groove depth is stored in the storage in advance, and if at least one of the measurement results of the groove depth of each tire stored in the memory area is lower than the threshold value, an abnormality is notified to the user.

[0009] (4) The tire groove measuring instrument described in (2) or (3), further comprising a USB terminal for sending the measurement result data of the groove depth of each tire stored in the memory area to an external device.

[0010] (5) A tire groove measuring instrument as described in (4), characterized in that a vehicle design showing a vehicle in a plan view is provided so as to include the display panel as a part thereof, the measurement buttons are each positioned at a position corresponding to a tire of the vehicle design, and the vehicle design includes a direction identification element capable of identifying the orientation of the vehicle design. Effect of the Invention

[0011] According to the present invention, the tire groove depth of a vehicle can be easily checked. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a tire groove measuring instrument 1 in the present embodiment. [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 is a front view of a tire groove measuring instrument 1 in the present embodiment. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a rear view of the tire groove measuring instrument 1 in the present embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 2 is a rear view of the tire groove measuring instrument 1 when measuring the tire groove depth in the present embodiment. [Diagram 5] FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the tire groove measuring instrument 1 in the present embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0013] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[0014] <Hardware configuration of tire groove measuring device 1> Fig. 1 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a tire groove measuring instrument 1 in this embodiment. Referring to Fig. 1, the tire groove measuring instrument 1 includes a tire groove depth acquisition unit 2, a plurality of measurement buttons 3, an operation button 4, a USB terminal 5, a display panel 6, and further includes a processing device 7 and a battery 8 therein.

[0015] The processing device 7 includes a processor 71, a storage 72, and a memory 73. The processor 71 is a semiconductor integrated circuit, and includes, for example, a central processing unit (CPU). The storage 72 and the memory 73 are storage devices that store various data and programs. The processor 71 reads out a program for executing each process described later from the storage 72, develops it in the memory 73, and executes the read program. The storage 72 is provided with a memory area 72a that stores the tire groove depth displayed in a second area 62 (described later) of the display panel 6. The program stored in the storage 72 may be provided to the tire groove measuring instrument 1 via, for example, a storage medium (such as a semiconductor memory or an optical disk). The roles of the tire groove depth acquisition unit 2, the measurement button 3, the operation button 4, the USB terminal 5, the display panel 6, and the battery 8 will be described later.

[0016] <Configuration of tire groove measuring device 1> Fig. 2 is a front view of the tire groove measuring instrument 1 in this embodiment. Fig. 3 is a rear view of the tire groove measuring instrument 1 in this embodiment. Fig. 4 is a rear view of the tire groove measuring instrument 1 when measuring a tire groove depth in this embodiment.

[0017] 3 and 4, the tire groove depth acquisition unit 2 includes a lever 21 and a measurement pin 22. The measurement pin 22 is configured to move up and down in conjunction with the lever 21, and when the user presses down the lever 21, the measurement pin 22 extends from the bottom surface of the main body of the tire groove measurement instrument 1. The measurement pin 22 is located at the center of the bottom surface of the tire groove measurement instrument 1. Here, the "center of the bottom surface of the tire groove measurement instrument 1" will be described with reference to FIG. 5. FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the tire groove measurement instrument 1 in this embodiment. If the vertical width of the bottom surface 90 of the tire groove measurement instrument 1 is Y and the horizontal width is Z, the center of the bottom surface 90 of the tire groove measurement instrument 1 refers to the area (shown by hatching in FIG. 5) where the area excluding the area of ​​0.4Y from both ends of the vertical width Y and the area excluding the area of ​​0.4Z from both ends of the horizontal width Z overlap.

[0018] The bottom surface 90 is placed against the tire surface of the vehicle to be measured, and the lever 21 is pressed down until the tip of the measurement pin 22 touches the bottom surface of the tire groove. The displacement of the lever 21 or the measurement pin 22 is then calculated by the processing device 7 (processor 71), thereby calculating the measurement result of the tire groove depth. The diameter of the measurement pin 22 is not particularly limited as long as it is large enough to be inserted into the tire groove, but can be set to, for example, 2 mm.

[0019] 2, the tire groove depth measurement result is displayed on the display panel 6. Specifically, when the tire groove depth is measured, the tire groove depth measurement result is displayed in a central region 61 (corresponding to a first region in the claims) of the display panel 6. In addition to the tire groove depth measurement result, the display panel 6 also displays information such as the remaining charge of the battery 8. A known display panel (for example, a liquid crystal panel or an OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) panel) can be used as the display panel 6.

[0020] The main body 9 is provided with the same number of measurement buttons 3 as the number of tires on the vehicle to be measured, and each measurement button 3 corresponds to each tire. In this embodiment, the tire groove measuring instrument 1 is intended to measure automobiles, so four measurement buttons 3 are provided.

[0021] As shown in FIG. 2, it is preferable that each measurement button 3 is arranged on the main body 9 so as to correspond to each position of the tire equipped on the vehicle to be measured. In this embodiment, a vehicle design 63 in which the vehicle is viewed in plan is provided so as to partially include the display panel 6, and each measurement button 3 is arranged at a position corresponding to the tire of the vehicle design 63. With this configuration, the user can intuitively understand which measurement button to press when measuring the tire groove depth, and the effort required for selecting a measurement button is reduced. In addition, the vehicle design 63 in this embodiment includes not only the outline of the vehicle but also a direction specifying element 64 (headlight, windshield, rear window, etc.) that can specify the direction of the vehicle design 63. This makes the direction of the vehicle design 63 clear, making it even easier to understand the correspondence between the measurement button 3 and the tire position of the actual vehicle. 2, it can be seen from the headlights, windshield, and rear windshield in the vehicle design 63 that the vehicle design 63 faces the operation button 4, so the user can intuitively recognize that the measurement button 31 corresponds to the right front tire of the vehicle, the measurement button 32 corresponds to the right rear tire of the vehicle, the measurement button 33 corresponds to the left front tire of the vehicle, and the measurement button 34 corresponds to the left rear tire of the vehicle. Note that the direction identification element 64 is not limited to the headlights, windshield, and rear windshield described above, and various elements that can identify the direction of the vehicle design 63 can be adopted.

[0022] Here, the display of the display panel 6 when the measurement button 3 is pressed will be described. As described above, first, when the groove depth of a predetermined tire is measured, the measurement result of the tire groove depth is displayed in the central area 61 of the display panel 6. The display panel 6 is provided with display areas 62a, 62b, 62c, and 62d (corresponding to the second area in the claims) corresponding to each measurement button 31, 32, 33, and 34, respectively, and by pressing the measurement button 3 corresponding to the tire whose groove depth has been measured, the measurement result of the tire groove depth displayed in the central area 61 is transitioned and displayed in the display area 62 corresponding to the pressed measurement button 3, and the measurement result displayed in the display area 62 corresponding to the pressed measurement button 3 is stored in the memory area 72a of the storage 72. By repeating this for each tire, the measurement results of the tire groove depth are displayed in the display areas 62a to 62d, and the measurement results of the tire groove depth are stored for each tire in the memory area 72a of the storage 72.

[0023] According to the above configuration, the tire groove depth measurement result displayed in the central area 61 is transitionally displayed in the display area 62 corresponding to the pressed measurement button 3, so that the previous measurement result can be retained even when the groove depth of another tire is measured. Therefore, there is no need to check the groove depth every time a tire is measured, and the groove depth can be checked easily. According to the above configuration, the tire groove depth measurement results of each tire are recorded in the memory area 72a, which prevents errors compared to manual copying, and also has the effect of enabling the results to be converted into data as a management value.

[0024] The positions of the display areas 62a, 62b, 62c, and 62d on the display panel 6 are not particularly limited, but are preferably located near the corresponding measurement buttons 31, 32, 33, and 34. That is, referring to Fig. 2, it is preferable that the display area 62a is located near the corresponding measurement button 31, the display area 62b is located near the corresponding measurement button 32, the display area 62c is located near the corresponding measurement button 33, and the display area 62d is located near the corresponding measurement button 34. With this configuration, the correspondence between the numerical values ​​in the display area 62 and the measurement buttons 31 and 34 becomes clearer.

[0025] The main body 9 is provided with a removable lid 51. When the lid 51 is removed, the USB terminal 5 provided inside is exposed. By inserting this USB terminal 5 into an external device (not shown) such as a PC or a smartphone, the measurement result data of the tread depth for each tire stored in the storage 72 (storage area 72a) can be sent to the external device.

[0026] As described above, since the tire tread depth measurement results are stored for each tire in memory area 72a of storage 72, the tire tread depth measurement data for all tires of a given vehicle can be sent together to an external device, making data transfer operations easier.

[0027] A plurality of operation buttons 4 are provided on the main body 9. Pressing the first operation button 41 sets a reference value (zero value) for measuring tire groove depth. Pressing the second operation button 42 erases all tire groove depth measurement data stored in the memory area 72a. Pressing the third operation button 43 with the USB terminal 5 inserted into an external device transfers the tire groove depth measurement data to the external device. The arrangement of the first operation button 41, the second operation button 42 and the third operation button 43 is not limited to that shown in FIG. 2 and can be arranged as appropriate.

[0028] The battery 8 supplies power to each component of the tire groove measuring instrument 1. The battery 8 may be driven by sliding the measurement pin 22 by pressing down the lever 21, or by pressing any of the operation buttons 4. A separate power button may be provided and the battery 8 may be driven by pressing the power button. The battery 8 may be turned off if the lever 21 or the operation button 4 has not been operated for a predetermined period of time, or if a separate power button is provided, the battery 8 may be turned off by pressing the power button. The tire groove measuring instrument 1 may not be provided with a battery 8, and may instead be configured to supply power from a commercial power source or the like outside the instrument.

[0029] The storage 72 may store a tire groove depth threshold value X in advance. The processor 71 reads the threshold value X from the storage 72 to the memory 73, compares the measurement results of the groove depth of each tire stored in the storage area 72a with the threshold value X, and notifies the user of an abnormality if any one of the measurement results falls below the threshold value X. As a method of an abnormality notification, for example, a method of blinking all groove depth measurement values ​​displayed on the display panel 6 can be adopted, but this is not limited thereto, and for example, a known notification method such as notification by sound or notification by an LED (not shown) can be adopted. The threshold value X can be set to an appropriate value depending on the usage environment of the target vehicle and known data, and can be set to 1.6 mm in accordance with regulations, for example.

[0030] A strap portion 91 is provided on a side surface of the main body portion 9 of the tire groove measuring instrument 1. By using the strap portion 91 with a string or the like, it is possible to prevent the tire groove measuring instrument 1 from falling during work.

[0031] (Modification) In the above-described embodiment, data transfer from the tire groove measuring instrument 1 to an external device can be performed using the USB terminal 5 provided in the tire groove measuring instrument 1, but data transfer may also be performed, for example, by providing a communication device in the tire groove measuring instrument 1 and communicating with the external device via wired or wireless communication. The communication device may be a device capable of wired communication conforming to a communication standard such as IEEE1394 (registered trademark) or Ethernet (registered trademark), or a device capable of wireless communication conforming to the Bluetooth (registered trademark) standard and / or Wi-Fi (registered trademark) standard. [Explanation of symbols]

[0032] 1 Tire tread measuring device 3 Measurement button 5 USB terminal 6 Display panel 7 Processing device 21 Lever 22 Measurement pin 61 First area (central area) 62 Second area (display area) 63 Vehicle design 64 Direction identification element 72 Storage 72a Memory area

Claims

1. A tire groove measuring device for measuring grooves provided in a tread of a tire equipped on a target vehicle to be measured, A display panel; a lever that is depressed by a user when measuring the depth of the groove; A measurement pin that is interlocked with the lever; a processing device that calculates a measurement result of the depth of the groove based on the displacement of the lever or the measurement pin; A plurality of measurement buttons provided corresponding to each tire of the target vehicle; Equipped with The measurement pin is located at the center of the bottom surface of the tire groove measuring instrument, The display panel includes: a first area in which a tire groove depth measurement result is displayed; a plurality of second regions provided corresponding to the respective measurement buttons; Equipped with each of the second regions is provided in the display panel near a corresponding one of the measurement buttons; By measuring the tread depth of a predetermined tire of the target vehicle, the measurement result of the tread depth of the predetermined tire is displayed in the first area, and by pressing the measurement button corresponding to the predetermined tire, the measurement result displayed in the first area is transitioned to be displayed in the second area corresponding to the pressed measurement button. A tire groove measuring device comprising:

2. The processing device includes a storage device. the storage includes a storage area for storing the tire groove depths displayed in the second areas, By pressing the measurement button, the measurement result displayed in the second area corresponding to the pressed measurement button is stored in the storage area.

2. The tire groove measuring instrument according to claim 1 .

3. The storage stores a tire groove depth threshold value in advance, If at least one of the tire tread depth measurement results stored in the storage area is lower than the threshold value, a user is notified of an abnormality.

3. The tire groove measuring instrument according to claim 2.

4. The tire groove measuring instrument includes: The tire measuring device further includes a USB terminal for transmitting the tire tread depth measurement result data stored in the memory area to an external device.

4. A tire groove measuring instrument according to claim 2 or 3.

5. A vehicle design showing a plan view of the vehicle is provided so as to include the display panel as a part thereof, the measurement buttons are arranged at positions corresponding to tires of the vehicle design, The vehicle design includes an orientation identifying element capable of identifying an orientation of the vehicle design. The tire groove measuring instrument according to claim 4 .

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