Tire metallic cable anomaly detection method and apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9442093-B2
Application number	US-201013260744-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 31, 2010
Priority date	Apr 9, 2009
Publication date	Sep 13, 2016
Grant date	Sep 13, 2016

Abstract

Disclosed is an apparatus and methodology for detecting anomalies in cables within a tire structure. A plurality of magnetic field sensitive sensors are aligned within a magnetic field provided by a magnet. The alignment of sensors and magnet is such that flux lines from the magnet are generally parallel to the plane occupied by the magnetic sensors. A tire cable anomaly present between the magnetic field sensitive sensors produces a detectable difference in signals produced by the magnetic field sensitive sensors as a result of the formation of perpendicular flux patterns produced by the anomaly. A signal processing circuit receiving input signals from the sensors evaluates differences between the signals from each of the plurality of sensors by pairing the output signal from each sensor with the output signal from each of the others of the plurality of sensors and produces an output signal upon the differences meeting selected criteria. The output signal may include an externally measurable signal and/or may include a visual signal indicating presence of a tire anomaly.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for detecting tire metallic cable anomalies, comprising:
a support structure;
a plurality of magnetic field sensors positioned on the support structure along a common line extending along the support structure and configured to produce individual electrical signals proportional to a sensed magnetic field, each of the individual electrical signals produced by each of the plurality of magnetic field sensors resulting from one of the tire metallic cable anomalies;
a magnet on the support structure, the magnet having north and south poles thereof positioned to provide a magnetic field at each said plurality of magnetic field sensors parallel to said common line; and
a signal processing circuit configured to produce signals indicative of differences between pairs of said individual electrical signals from different magnetic field sensors resulting from the one of the tire metallic cable anomalies,
wherein the electrical signal from each of said plurality of magnetic field sensors is paired with an electrical signal from each of the others of said plurality of magnetic field sensors.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of magnetic field sensors comprise surface mount Hall effect sensors.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said signal processing circuit is configured to pair the strongest electrical signal with the strongest opposing electrical signal to produce a damage magnitude signal while ignoring the remaining electrical signals.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said signal processing circuit is configured to produce a signal based on one of subtractive signal differences, the presence of opposite sloped signals with slopes each exceeding a predetermined magnitude, and convolution analysis of zero averaged multiplied waveforms.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising:
an automated control system configured to automatically present said plurality of magnetic field sensors to a metallic cable for detection of anomalies therein.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said plurality of magnetic field sensors comprises at least three magnetic field sensors.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the magnet is a permanent magnet.

8. A method for detecting anomalies in a tire metallic cable, comprising:
positioning a plurality of magnetic field sensors on a support structure on a common line extending along the support structure;
positioning a magnet on the support structure, the magnet having north and south poles thereof to provide a magnetic field at each of said plurality of magnetic field sensors parallel to said common line;
presenting said plurality of magnetic field sensors to a metallic cable; and
detecting a difference between signals from different magnetic field sensors and resulting from one of the anomalies;
wherein the electrical signal from each of said plurality of magnetic field sensors is paired with an electrical signal from each of the others of said plurality of magnetic.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
pairing the strongest positive signal from each of the plurality of magnetic field sensors with the strongest negative signal from each one of the other magnetic field sensors; and
analyzing the difference between the strongest positive and strongest negative signals to the exclusion of the remaining magnetic field sensor signals.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein detecting a difference between signals comprises producing a signal based on one of subtractive signal differences, the presence of opposite sloped signals with slopes each exceeding a predetermined magnitude, and convolution analysis of zero averaged multiplied waveforms.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein positioning magnetic field sensors comprises positioning surface mount Hall effect sensors.

12. The method of claim 8 , wherein positioning a magnet comprises positioning both the north and south poles of a magnet along a line parallel to said common line.

13. The method of claim 8 , wherein positioning a plurality of magnetic field sensors comprises positioning at least three magnetic field sensors.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein positioning a magnet comprises positioning a permanent magnet.

Assignees

• Brandon Lee
• Deamicis Gene Edward
• Gramling Frank E
• Judd David Andrew
• Michelin Rech Et Techniques S A
• Michelin & Cie

Inventors

• Brandon Lee
• Deamicis Gene Edward
• Gramling Frank E
• Judd David Andrew

Classifications

• G01N27/82 Primary

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