A hand-held device for measuring tire pressure and temperature including a pressure sensor, a temperature sensor, an optical pointer, a processor responsive to an output of the pressure sensor and the temperature sensor, and a display. The processor is configured to output a value on the display indicative of a measured tire pressure.

A tire suitable for running flat comprises a crown, two sidewalls and two beads, a carcass reinforcement anchored in each bead and a sidewall insert placed in each of the two sidewalls axially internally relative to the carcass reinforcement, such that it is equipped with an electronic device comprising at least one radiofrequency transponder and such that the electronic device is placed radially in a zone representing over 55% of the section height of the tire.

In an embodiment, a system for wear monitoring, includes a wear surface, a metallic reflector embedded in the wear surface, a radio-wave transmitter, and a radio-wave receiver. The metallic reflector reflects radio waves transmitted by the radio-wave transmitter for detection by the radio wave receiver. Attenuation of the radio waves between transmission by the radio-wave transmitter and detection by the radio-wave receiver indicates a degree of wear of the wear surface.

A curing press for tires that comprises: an upper cavity part having a vertically separable upper housing (9) and a top mold (11); a base having a lower cavity part that forms an arrangement to provide mold height adjustment during curing. The base comprises a bottom bolster structure (20) and a bottom mold (22). The bottom bolster structure comprising: ring means rotatably arranged with said bottom bolster structure, to facilitate closing or opening of said top mold and said bottom mold; the bolster structure comprises squeeze cylinders (24) having means to provide mold height adjustment. A squeeze retract stop assembly is provided to restrict vertically downward movement of said bottom mold during a tire curing process. The press comprises at least one locking lever (34) and at least one indexing lock pin (35) that is adapted to connect said lever (34) to lock holes (20a) in said bottom bolster structure (20) wherein each lock hole corresponds to a particular mold height.

A tire characteristic determination system is disclosed. The tire characteristic determination system includes a memory device that stores tire-engaging data related to one or more tire-engaging value to be utilized for spatially manipulating a tire about a wheel for forming a tire-wheel assembly. The tire characteristic determination device includes a tire-engaging test probe that is urged adjacent the tire at one or more tire displacement distances or is urged against the tire with one or more amounts of urging forces. The tire characteristic determination device is communicatively-coupled to the memory device for communicating the one or more tire displacement distances or the one or more amounts of urging forces to the memory device.

The present invention provides an unique ID electronic (UM) tag for a tire, which is suitable to be mounted on a surface of tire or embedded in a tire, comprising: a tag unit; a pliable protective layer; and a vuicanizable bonding layer. The pliable protective layer provided on two opposite sides of the tag unit. The vulcanizable bonding layer provided on one or each of the two opposite sides of the pliable protective layer to bond the UID tag tightly to the tire during a vulcanization process. Further, the tag unit comprises a circuit substrate provided with an antenna circuit, and an integrated circuit (IC) chip electrically connected to the antenna circuit.

The present invention provides an unique ID electronic (UM) tag for a tire, which is suitable to be mounted on a surface of tire or embedded in a tire, comprising: a tag unit; a pliable protective layer; and a vuicanizable bonding layer. The pliable protective layer provided on two opposite sides of the tag unit. The vulcanizable bonding layer provided on one or each of the two opposite sides of the pliable protective layer to bond the UID tag tightly to the tire during a vulcanization process. Further, the tag unit comprises a circuit substrate provided with an antenna circuit, and an integrated circuit (IC) chip electrically connected to the antenna circuit.

A method includes a step in which time series data pertaining to displacements of node groups including all nodes that constitute an exterior surface of a tire including grooves thereon, and at least a portion of all nodes that constitute groove space elements, is acquired from results of arithmetic operations for deformation in accordance with the model being such that having the groove space elements; and a step in which a fluid analytic model in which space around the tire is expressed as a plurality of computational mesh cells is used to perform arithmetic operations for fluid analysis in which arithmetic operations are carried out with respect to a physical quantity of fluid for each of the computational mesh cells as locations of the computational mesh cells are varied in such fashion that the node groups in the time series data are made to serve as control points.

A method is presented for fitting a tyre onto a rim or removing a tyre from a rim in a tyre fitting machine using an appropriate tool. A wheel, a tyre/rim assembly, or the rim alone is caused to rotate about an axis of rotation, and at least one operating parameter of the tyre fitting machine is continuously monitored during the rotation to determine every actual value. Change in or gradient of such actual value is automatically monitored over time and each actual value found and/or the change in the value over time is compared with corresponding predetermined threshold values. The predetermined threshold values define a range of present values and/or change in values delimiting an accepted operating range for the tyre fitting machine, and the machine is controlled to maintain each measured present value and/or change therein over time within the range of corresponding predetermined threshold values.

A method is presented for fitting a tyre onto a rim or removing a tyre from a rim in a tyre fitting machine using an appropriate tool. A wheel, a tyre/rim assembly, or the rim alone is caused to rotate about an axis of rotation, and at least one operating parameter of the tyre fitting machine is continuously monitored during the rotation to determine every actual value. Change in or gradient of such actual value is automatically monitored over time and each actual value found and/or the change in the value over time is compared with corresponding predetermined threshold values. The predetermined threshold values define a range of present values and/or change in values delimiting an accepted operating range for the tyre fitting machine, and the machine is controlled to maintain each measured present value and/or change therein over time within the range of corresponding predetermined threshold values.