Handheld Tyre Scanner With Guide Wheels for Accurate 3D Profiling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing methods for inspecting the surface profile of a tire, particularly for assessing wear and ensuring compliance with safety limits, are inadequate in accuracy and efficiency, especially when dealing with uneven surfaces and complex tire geometry.
Innovation Solution
A hand-held device using a rotary encoder and a projected light pattern, combined with guide wheels and a detector, to measure the three-dimensional topological surface profile of a tire, ensuring accurate depth measurements and minimizing imaging errors by maintaining consistent contact with the tire surface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a hand-held device is used to inspect tyre surface profile, then portability and ease of operation are improved, but measurement precision and reliability deteriorate due to difficulty in maintaining consistent contact with uneven tyre surfaces
Solution Approach 1:
Guide wheels are introduced as intermediary elements between the device base and the tyre surface. These guide wheels maintain consistent contact with the tyre surface during scanning, serving as a mediator that ensures stable positioning and reliable measurement data collection while preserving the portability of the hand-held device.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces direct mechanical contact between the device base and tyre surface with a roller-based mechanical system. The guide wheels convert sliding friction into rolling friction, enabling smoother movement along the tyre surface and more consistent contact pressure, thereby improving measurement precision without sacrificing portability.
2Device complexity
If the device base contacts the tyre surface directly, then structural simplicity is maintained, but imaging errors increase due to bumps and grooves causing the base to catch
Solution Approach 1:
Guide wheels serve as intermediary components that separate the device base from direct contact with the tyre surface. This intermediary system allows the base to remain elevated and stable while the guide wheels navigate the surface irregularities, preventing imaging errors caused by base contact with bumps and grooves.
3Measurement precision
If rotary encoder is used to determine relative movement, then measurement accuracy is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a rotary encoder that converts mechanical rotation into electrical signals for digital processing. This substitution of mechanical measurement with electro-optical sensing improves movement measurement accuracy while the integration into the existing device architecture minimizes the increase in overall complexity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables reliable generation of a three-dimensional topological surface profile of a tire, providing accurate measurements of tread depth, wheel alignment, and tire wear assessment, while being energy-efficient and adaptable to various tire surfaces.
Implementation Method 1
a rotary encoder to determine relative movement between the device and the tyre
Implementation Method 2
imaging at least of portion of the projected pattern reflected from the surface of the tyre enables the surface topology of the tyre
Implementation Method 3
the generated line and imaged line pattern enable distortion-based surface depth measurements to be made by, for example, examining the extent of any displacements and/or discontinuities
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 2a
AI summary
A hand-held device for obtaining a three-dimensional topological surface profile of a tyre, the device comprising: a base comprising an aperture; a light source arranged in use to generate an elongate pattern of light, and to project said pattern through the aperture onto a rolling surface of the tyre; a detector arranged to image a region of the rolling surface of the tyre; a plurality of pairs of guide wheels mounted on respective axles mounted on the base, wherein the guide wheels on adjacent axles are linked by gears; and a rotary encoder arranged to generate a signal corresponding to rotation of an axle.