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.

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.

A method for designing a pneumatic tire to have improved vibration characteristics. Dynamic testing of the tire detects a) respective frequencies of a plurality of radial vibration modes of the tire, and b) respective frequencies of a plurality of torsional vibration modes of the tire. The testing may determine that a first interval between the frequency of an even-numbered radial vibration mode and the frequency of an even-numbered torsional vibration mode is less than a first threshold, and/or may determine that a second interval between the frequency of an odd-numbered radial vibration mode and the frequency of an odd-numbered torsional vibration mode is less than a second threshold. One or more design parameter of the tire is/are modified to increase at least one of first interval and the second interval to the respective first or second threshold.

A tire management system includes a management apparatus and a database portion. The tire management system acquires travel history data concerning a history of causes of degradation of tire performance of a tire mounted on a vehicle, and decides a replenishing agent for restoring the tire performance that has been degraded, based on the acquired travel history data.

A tire management system includes a management apparatus and a database portion. The tire management system acquires travel history data concerning a history of causes of degradation of tire performance of a tire mounted on a vehicle, and decides a replenishing agent for restoring the tire performance that has been degraded, based on the acquired travel history data.

A chemically treated, RFID equipped mesh tire label configured to be integrally incorporated within a vulcanized tire and to provide unique identifier(s) and/or other information about the vulcanized tire during and post tire vulcanization, the label comprising: a mesh face layer configured to be adhered to an outer surface of an unvulcanized tire; a mesh backing layer attached to the mesh face layer and adapted to be integrally incorporated in a vulcanized tire after subjecting a green tire to a vulcanization process; and an RFID device affixed between the mesh face and mesh backing layers, the RFID device that is configured to provide unique identifier(s) and/or other information upon being read with an RFID reader during and post tire vulcanization.

A system and method are provided for estimating and applying vehicle tire traction. Vehicle data (e.g., movement and location-based data) and tire sensor data are collected at a vehicle and transmitted to a remote computing system (e.g., cloud server). A wear status is determined, and traction characteristics determined for at least one tire, based at least on the vehicle data and the determined tire wear status. The predicted tire traction characteristics are transmitted from the remote computing system to an active safety unit associated with the vehicle, or a fleet management system, wherein the recipient is configured to modify vehicle operation settings based on at least the predicted tire traction characteristics. A maximum speed for the vehicle may be defined by the recipient, or a minimum following distance where, e.g., the vehicle is one of multiple vehicles in a defined platoon.

A procedure for evaluating tire tread depth measurement data points acquired from a tread region on the surface of a tire in order to generate a representation of the tire tread region having an appearance of having been worn over time, so as to convey to a recipient a visual indication of potential tire tread wear at a point in time subsequent to the acquisition of the tire tread depth measurements.

In order to detect a road surface condition, a road surface condition estimation device extracts a detection signal of a portion that detects vibration in a tire tangential direction in a vibration detection and power generation unit which is in a ground contact section, for example, a vibration power generation element. In this case, it is identified that the vibration detection and power generation unit is in the ground contact section, based on whether a centrifugal force acting on the vibration detection and power generation unit is generated, or not, and it is identified that a time when no centrifugal force is generated is in the ground contact section. As a result, even if a pulse level of an output voltage of the vibration detection generation unit changes according to a traveling speed of the vehicle, the ground contact section can be accurately identified.

A method for producing a tire for a motor vehicle includes estimating a laden radius R.sub.l of the tire using a formula having a form of: $R_l=R_0-\frac{\mathrm{Fz}}{\mathrm{Kzz}}+R_V{V}^2-\left(\frac{R_{Y1}}{\mathrm{Pg}}+R_{Y2}\right).Math.\mathrm{Fy}.Math.+R_{}.Math..Math.,$
where K.sub.ZZ has a form of: K.sub.ZZ=K.sub.ZZ 0+K.sub.ZZpPg.