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 tire testing device having a rotary drive unit that rotationally drives a tire; a load drum that has an outer peripheral surface that can come into contact with the tire being rotationally driven; a drum support mechanism that supports the load drum and relatively moves the load drum such that the tire and the outer peripheral surface of the load drum come into contact and separate; a shape sensor that detects a surface shape of the tire being rotationally driven; a drive control unit that controls the operation of the rotary drive unit, the drum support mechanism, and the shape sensor; a registration unit that stores information related to the tire test; and an input reception unit that receives, and registers, in the registration unit, information related to the tire test entered by a user prior to the tire test being conducted.

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.

Disclosed herein are various embodiments relating to devices, systems and methods relating to the mounting and inflating of tires for use in automotive applications. There is a need in the art for improved devices, systems and methods for tire mounting and inflation, so as to allow a user to prepare racing tires without mounting on a rim.

A tire surface managing method, comprising: emitting detecting light to a target object on a surface of a tire; receiving reflected detecting light from the target object and from the surface adjacent to the target object; determining whether the target object protrudes according to a distance calculated according to the reflected detecting light from the target object and a distance calculated according to the reflected detecting light from the surface; determining whether the target object forms a hole on the surface according to the distance calculated according to the reflected detecting light from the target object and the distance calculated according to the reflected detecting light from the surface; receiving the reflected detecting light from the surface to calculate a width of the hole on the tire; and activating a protection mechanism for a vehicle comprising the tire if the width is larger than a width threshold.

A chucking apparatus for positioning a tire in a tire uniformity machine includes an upper chuck assembly, a lower chuck assembly operative with the upper chuck assembly to capture a tire therebetween, and a dual piston cylinder coupled to the lower chuck assembly which moves the tire into engagement with the upper chuck assembly. The dual piston cylinder has an axially extending inner piston rod from which axially extends a field-replaceable inner piston stem.

A computer-implemented method, an apparatus and a computer-program product for determining a quality of a tire. The apparatus includes a sensor array configured to obtain a footprint of the tire, and a processor. The processor determines an intensity profile of the footprint, locates an edge of a tread rib of the tire from the change in intensity, and determines from the location of the tread rib edge a relative quality of the tire.

Disclosed herein are various embodiments relating to devices, systems and methods relating to the mounting and inflating of tires for use in automotive applications. There is a need in the art for improved devices, systems and methods for tire mounting and inflation, so as to allow a user to prepare racing tires without mounting on a rim.

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 storage maintains coefficients that map histogram data elements to tire wear, the coefficients being trained based on a correlation of histogram data to measured tire wear. A processor is programmed to receive a wear data histogram from a vehicle, utilize the coefficients to translate the wear data histogram into a measure of physical tire wear; and send an alert message indicating the estimated tire wear.