Uniformity of a tire using tooling signature analysis

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10279636-B2
Application number	US-201214427800-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 28, 2012
Priority date	Sep 28, 2012
Publication date	May 7, 2019
Grant date	May 7, 2019

Abstract

Systems and methods for improving the uniformity of a tire by identifying the effects of tooling elements used during tire manufacture on tire uniformity, such as effects resulting from building drum elements, form elements, mold elements, and other tooling elements, are provided. More particularly, a tooling signature of a tooling element can be identified by analyzing a plurality of uniformity waveforms measured for a set of tires manufactured using the tooling element. The tooling signature can be analyzed and used to modify tire manufacture to improve the uniformity of a tire.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for improving the uniformity of a tire, comprising:
measuring a plurality of uniformity waveforms, each uniformity waveform measured for a tire in a set of a plurality of tires;
modeling each uniformity waveform of the plurality of uniformity waveforms as a sum of one or more tooling element terms and one or more non-tooling element terms, the one or more tooling element terms associated with a tooling element used in tire manufacture, the one or more non-tooling element terms associated with tire and process harmonics;
identifying a tooling signature for the tooling element used in tire manufacture, the tooling signature based, at least in part, on the one or more tooling element terms; and
modifying manufacture of one or more tires based on the identified tooling signature,
wherein the tooling signature is comprised of data representative of a tooling effect on a uniformity parameter for a plurality of data points about a circumference of the tooling element, and
wherein the tooling signature is comprised of data representative of a point-by-point estimation of a physical shape of the tooling element.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of uniformity waveforms comprises a radial run out waveform.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of uniformity waveforms comprises a radial force variation waveform, the tooling signature comprising data representative of the contribution of the tooling element to radial force variation at each point of the plurality of points about the circumference of the tooling element.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the tooling element comprises a building drum element, a form element, or a mold element.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of a plurality of tires includes 200 tires to 800 tires.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying a tooling signature based at least in part on the one or more tooling element terms comprises:
estimating coefficients associated with the one or more tooling element terms using a regression analysis or a programming analysis; and
generating the tooling signature for the tooling element based on the estimated coefficients associated with the one or more tooling element terms.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the tooling element terms comprise a separate tooling element term for each of a plurality of tooling elements used in the manufacture of a tire in the set of a plurality of tires.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying manufacture of one or more tires based on the identified tooling signature comprises:
analyzing the tooling signature to determine if a maintenance action for the tooling element is needed,
performing the maintenance action on the tooling element when the maintenance action is needed.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein analyzing the tooling signature to determine if a maintenance action is needed comprises determining whether the tooling signature exceeds a threshold at one or more of the points in the plurality of points.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein analyzing the tooling signature to determine if a maintenance action is needed comprises comparing a first tooling signature for a first tooling element against a second tooling signature for a second tooling element to rank the tooling elements for the maintenance action.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein analyzing the tooling signature to determine if a maintenance action is needed comprises comparing the tooling signature to a previously obtained tooling signature for the tooling element to identify a change in the tooling signature, and performing the maintenance action based on an identified change in the tooling signature.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying manufacture of one or more tires based on the tooling signature comprises designing a tooling element for use in tire manufacture based on the tooling signature.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein modifying manufacture of one or more tires based on the tooling signature comprises designing a tooling element for use in tire manufacture based on the tooling signature.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein using the tooling signature in the uniformity compensation method comprises:
performing a before cure uniformity measurement during manufacture of a tire, and
selecting a downstream tooling element to be used during manufacture of the tire based on the identified tooling signature.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein comparing the tooling signature for the first tooling element against the tooling signature for the second tooling element occurs during a common time period.

Assignees

• Mawby William David
• Sauls Jonathan
• Traylor James Michael
• Michelin & Cie

Inventors

• Mawby William David
• Sauls Jonathan
• Traylor James Michael

Classifications

• B60C99/006 Primary

  Computer aided tyre design or simulation · CPC title

• B29D2030/0634

  Measuring, calculating, correcting tyre uniformity, e.g. correcting RFV · CPC title

• G05B2219/50055

  Make hollow worpiece with uniform wall thickness · CPC title

• G05B19/41875 Primary

  characterised by quality surveillance of production · CPC title

• G01M17/02

  Tyres · CPC title