A performance evaluation method for elastic material including rubber or elastomer, the method includes a step of applying a strain to a test piece made of the elastic material to form at least one void inside the test piece, a step of obtaining projected images of the test piece by irradiating the test piece with X-rays at a plurality of times after the at least one void is formed, and a step of obtaining a volume change of the at least one void between the plurality of times based on the projected images, as one of indexes of performance.

The present invention provides a method of deterioration analysis that enables detailed analysis of the deterioration, especially of the surface, of a polymer material containing at least two diene polymers. The present invention relates to a method of deterioration analysis including: irradiating a polymer material containing at least two diene polymers with high intensity x-rays; and measuring x-ray absorption while varying the energy of the x-rays, to analyze the deterioration of each diene polymer.

A method for calibrating an X-ray inspection system for a tire. The X-ray inspection system includes an X-ray tube, a linear X-ray detector, and a manipulator for the tire. The method includes moving one of the X-ray tube, the linear X-ray detector, and the manipulator along a travel path from a set starting position to a set end position, capturing, at a preset reading rate during the movement of one of the X-ray tube, the linear X-ray detector, and the manipulator, a continuous capture of X-ray radiography images of a cord within the tire, tracking the cord using successive X-ray radiography images, and deducing an absolute position of the cord using a total shift of the cord in the X-ray radiography images between the starting position and the end position and using known geometric data.

Provided is a method for estimating abrasion resistance of polymer composite materials. The present disclosure relates to a method for estimating abrasion resistance, the method including: irradiating a sulfur compound-containing polymer composite material with high intensity X-rays; measuring an X-ray absorption in a small region of the polymer composite material while varying an energy of the X-rays, whereby a dispersion state and a chemical state of the sulfur compound are analyzed; and quantifying an inhomogeneous state of cross-link degradation in the polymer composite material based on the dispersion state and the chemical state.

A pneumatic tire includes bead cores, a carcass ply, an inner liner and the tread, and the crosslinked rubber composition, of the present invention, wherein the tread and the crosslinked rubber composition have a volume of the low density region of 35% or more at elongation by an applied stress of 1.5 MPa, a volume of the void portion of 7.5 or less at elongation by an applied stress of 3.0 MPa and a ratio of 40% by mass or more of a component having a weight-average molecular weight of not less than 1,000,000 in a molecular weight distribution measured by gel permeation chromatography are excellent in abrasion resistance.

According to an aspect of the invention, there is provided a low-cost system for inspecting the integrity of a wheel rim, said system including one or more of the following: a portable compact x-ray device; a wheel gripping means operable to rotate and hold the rim in position; and an x-ray detector panel; wherein said x-ray detector panel is operable to produce an image of the wheel rim on a computer, to thereby manipulate and store images of said wheel rim.

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 method for checking the location of elements in a tire in an X-ray inspection system. The X-ray inspection system has an X-ray tube, a linear X-ray detector and a manipulator. The method includes: using a three-dimensional model of the tire, in which potential locations of the elements in the tire are described; recording two-dimensional X-ray line images of the tire elements consisting of pixels, which are described by a vector from the X-ray tube through the element to the X-ray detector; allocation of the pixels of an element from the two-dimensional X-ray line image to the three-dimensional model of the tire, in that the intersection point of a straight line through the X-ray tube with the vector of the pixel from the two-dimensional X-ray line image is assigned with the potential location of the element of the three-dimensional model as a point in the space for the pixel.

The pneumatic tire characterized by comprising the tread and the crosslinked rubber composition, of the present invention, wherein the tread and the crosslinked rubber composition comprise two or more kinds of rubber components and a filler and have a volume of the low density region of 35% or more, a volume of the void portion of 7.5 or less and a filler distribution D represented by the following formula (I) of 2.0 or less are excellent in abrasion resistance.
D=(A.sub.1/B.sub.1)/(A.sub.0/B.sub.0)(I) In the formula (I), A.sub.1 represents a volume fraction of a rubber component A in a filler gel, B.sub.1 represents a volume fraction of a rubber component B in a filler gel, A.sub.0 represents a volume fraction of a compounded rubber component A, B.sub.0 represents a volume fraction of a compounded rubber component B.

The invention relates to a device for non-destructively material testing objects, in particular rims and wheels (12), comprising an X-ray inspection cabin (14) which contains an X-ray inspection device (28) for X-raying the objects and comprising conveyor devices (34, 36, 56, 68, 98) for conveying objects through at least one lock (20, 22) into the X-ray inspection cabin (14) and out of the X-ray inspection cabin (14). The aim of the invention is to prevent a leakage of X-rays into the surrounding area through the lock (20, 22) and to reduce the quantity of lead needed for shielding and optionally the space requirement of the device (10). According to the invention this is achieved in that the lock (20, 22) comprises a hollow cylinder (60), the circumferential wall (62) of which has a through-opening (64) for the objects and which can be rotated about a horizontal rotation axis in order to position the through-opening (64) on a lock (20, 22) side facing away from the X-ray inspection cabin (14) or the lock (20, 22) side facing the X-ray inspection cabin (14) in an alternating manner.