A tire testing assembly adapted to provide precise displacements and simulate slow rate conditions, the tire testing assembly including: a support structure adapted to be coupled to a tire under test; a ground plane adapted to contact the tire under test and simulate a ground or road surface; and a lateral translation mechanism movably coupled between the support structure and the tire under test and adapted to translate the tire under test laterally relative to the ground plane. The tire testing assembly also includes a steering frame pivotably coupled between the support structure and the tire under test and adapted to pivot the tire under test about a steer axis of rotation relative to the ground plane. The tire testing assembly further includes a longitudinal translation mechanism movably coupled between the support structure and the tire under test and adapted to translate the tire under test longitudinally relative to the ground plane.

An assembly for use in conducting a biaxial test on an object. The assembly comprises a housing that has an interior, and a spindle carriage assembly having a carriage. A portion of the spindle is telescoped with the carriage and coupled to the carriage by a bearing to allow rotation of the spindle. A silhouette is coupled to the spindle for supporting and connecting the spindle to the object during a biaxial test. A transducer is coupled to the carriage and cooperates with the spindle for measuring forces acting on the spindle. The spindle carriage assembly couples to the housing with the carriage disposed in the interior of, and spaced from, the housing, wherein forces that act on the object and the housing are transferred directly to the spindle and measured by the transducer.

A tire distortion detection method includes a first step of forming a portion to be detected on a surface of an inner liner, a second step of detecting the portion to be detected in any two states from a formation of a product tire from a tire component including the inner liner to a change for a load condition on the product tire, and a third step of comparing positions of the portions to be detected in the two states obtained in the second step.

A rim exchanger includes a rim stocker. The rim stocker has an upper rim support portion that supports an upper rim, and a lower rim support portion that supports a lower rim. The upper rim support portion and the lower rim support portion have a pair of support arms separated from each other. A portion between an end of one support arm and an end of the other support arm forms an open end where a rim body enters a portion between the pair of support arms. An upper surface of one support arm forms a protrusion portion support surface which supports a protrusion portion of a rim from below.

A first carrying arm (64) and a second carrying arm (65) provided in a first post (61) and a third carrying arm (73) and a fourth carrying arm (74) provided in a second post (62) are provided, the first carrying arm (64) is turned in a direction following the third carrying arm (73) from a side opposite to a side on which the third carrying arm (73) collecting an upper rim turns to carry another upper rim to an upper spindle, and the second carrying arm (65) is turned in a direction following the fourth carrying arm (74) from a side opposite to a side on which the fourth carrying arm (74) collecting a lower rim turns to carry another lower rim to a lower spindle.

Disclosed is an automobile tire burst simulation experiment device, which is fixed on a rim installed with an automobile tire. The automobile tire burst simulation experiment device comprises a pre-tightening triggering device, a retracting device, a storage battery and a controller, the tire burst simulation experiment device according to the present invention uses two drive motors to drive two sets of roller screw slide rails, so as to drive the breakdown device away from and close to the tire to achieve a simulated tire burst and rapid deflation. The experiment device has the characteristics of quick installation, low cost, strong versatility, and adjustable speed; the device can be applied to the tire burst experiment under different vehicle speeds and road conditions of various automobile models. The structure is simple and the simulation control accuracy is high. After the tire burst, the subsequent experiments of the vehicle are not affected.

A tire testing device includes a carriage configured to rotatably hold a test wheel provided with a test tire and being capable of travelling on a base along a road surface in a state where the test wheel is made to contact the road surface, and a driving system configured to drive the test wheel and the carriage. The driving system includes a carriage driving part configured to drive the carriage with respect to the road surface in a predetermined speed, a test wheel driving part configured to drive the test wheel in a rotating speed corresponding to the predetermined speed, a driving part configured to generate power to be used to drive the carriage and the test wheel, and a power distributing part configured to distribute power generated by the driving part to the carriage driving part and the test wheel driving part.

A rim size management method for a tire testing machine includes: a registration step of registering a rim size of each of rims mounted on a rim table in association with a corresponding one of mounting positions on the rim table; a measurement step of actually measuring, with use of a rim measurement mechanism, a size at an outer circumferential edge of at least a first rim mounted at a first mounting position among the plurality of mounting positions; a determination step of determining whether or not the size thus measured at the outer circumferential edge of the first rim corresponds to a registered rim size as the rim size thus registered; and an avoidance step of executing avoidance operation of avoiding contact between the rim and the pair of conveyors when the size at the outer circumferential edge is determined as not corresponding to the registered rim size.

Provided is a rim width adjustment mechanism for the tire testing machine, capable of being reduced in the number of components and miniaturized. The rim width adjustment mechanism includes a lower spindle for rotatably supporting the tire about a vertical axis through the lower rim, a plunger disposed in a through hole of the lower spindle to be raisable and lowerable to the lower spindle and having an upper end connectable to the upper spindle, and a rim width adjustment cylinder for adjusting the rim width by changing the protrusion length of the plunger beyond the lower spindle. The lower spindle is coupled to a cylinder side wall of the rim-width adjustment cylinder, thereby allowing a downward load applied to the lower spindle to be supported by the cylinder sidewall.

Provided is a tire testing machine allowing rim replacement work to be performed easily and safely without requiring a large overall device length. The tire testing machine includes: a rim table allowing a plurality of rims to be placed thereon; a pair of left and right conveyors that convey a tire having been subjected to a tire test and removed from a rim downstream; and a rim replacement mechanism allowing a replacement target rim selected from the rims placed on the rim table to be replaced with another rim. The rim table is rotatable about a vertical axis at a position below the pair of conveyors, and the rims are placed at respective positions arranged in the rotation circumferential direction thereof. The rim replacing mechanism includes a rotational drive mechanism that rotates the rim table to move the replacement target rim to a replacement position.