Measuring and testing – Tire – tread or roadway
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-19
2004-06-15
Lefkowitz, Edward (Department: 2855)
Measuring and testing
Tire, tread or roadway
C340S443000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06748797
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to monitoring tires of a vehicle and more particularly to monitoring the tires by measuring the temperature of the tires.
The invention also relates to the application of a wireless power system for controlling power transfer and communication between sensors and transducers mounted on the vehicle, such as tire monitoring sensors, and other systems or devices in the vehicle.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In August, 2000, Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. recalled approximately 6.5 million Firestone ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires used primarily on Ford Motor Co. light trucks and sport utility vehicles, including Ford's best-selling Explorer. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating Firestone tires in connection with at least 101 U.S. traffic deaths and more than about 400 injuries. Most of the Firestone tire deaths occurred when the tires came apart while on Ford Explorers, causing the vehicles to roll over.
Bridgestone/Firestone has been criticized for not ordering a recall sooner, even though the company's data on claims for injuries and property damage indicated problems with the tires at least as early as 1997. Ford received harsh criticism after the Firestone recall because it acknowledged ordering its own recall of the same tires in 16 other countries after receiving reports of problems. The foreign recalls began more than a year before the U.S. recall, but Ford never alerted NHTSA. Ford was not required by law to report the foreign recalls.
Spurred in particular by the recent problems with Firestone tires, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill requiring vehicle rollover testing and installation of systems to warn of under-inflated tires. It would allow stiff prison sentences for automotive industry executives who hide safety problems. According to the bill, there would be a 15-year sentence for officials who withhold information on defective products from government investigators. It also includes a safe harbor provision that would allow whistle-blowers to report the defects within a reasonable amount of time without being punished. Moreover, companies would have to tell NHTSA about tire recalls overseas.
The House bill also would require that all vehicles have warning indicators for low tire pressure and it includes a provision requiring NHTSA to develop driving tests to determine vehicle rollover risk instead of the simple mathematical formula the agency plans to use.
It is not uncommon for an automotive vehicle today to have many motors, other actuators, lights etc., controlled by one hundred or more switches and fifty or more relays and connected together by almost five hundred meters of wire, and close to one thousand pin connections grouped in various numbers into connectors. It is not surprising therefore that the electrical system in a vehicle is by far the most unreliable system of the vehicle and the probable cause of most warranty repairs.
Unfortunately, the automobile industry is taking a piecemeal approach to solving this problem when a revolutionary approach is called for. Indeed, the current trend in the automotive industry is to group several devices of the vehicle's electrical system together which are located geometrically or physically in the same area of the vehicle and connect them to a zone module which is then connected by communication and power buses to the remainder of the vehicle's electrical system. The resulting hybrid systems still contain substantially the same number and assortment of connectors with only about a 20% reduction in the amount of wire in the vehicle.
In view of the foregoing, it has been suggested to couple a pressure sensor to the tires on a vehicle and wirelessly transmit a signal representative of the sensed pressure to a control module on the vehicle proper.
It is known to use internal-to-vehicle mechanisms for monitoring the air pressure of the tires of a vehicle. These mechanisms have a stationary device which interacts with a device that co-moves with the respective wheel of the vehicle in such a way that monitoring of the air pressure can take place during operation of the vehicle. The co-moving device uses suitable means to sense the air pressure, and transmits an output-related signal to the stationary device if the air pressure falls below a certain value. A prerequisite for operation of these systems is that the co-moving device have an energy supply, for example a small battery rotating along with the wheel being monitored. This configuration must therefore be included in ongoing maintenance cycles so that a battery exchange is performed at the proper time. The battery exchange leads to additional costs. Moreover, the mass of the rotating wheel is influenced by the requisite battery device; in particular, an asymmetrical mass distribution results, which requires additional counterweights. Overall wheel balance is therefore degraded.
With respect to pressure sensors mounted on tires, U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,337 to Sharpe, et al. describes tire pressure and temperature measurement system in which the vehicle wheel tire inflation pressure is measured in real time by a sensor assembly mounted on a rotary part of the wheel. The assembly includes a piezoresistive cell exposed to inflation gas pressure and an electronics module comprising an assembly of three printed circuit boards (PCB). A power signal transmitted from the vehicle to the electronics module via a rotary transformer is conditioned by PCB to provide an energizing signal for the cell. Pressure and temperature signals output by the cell are received by the PCB and converted to digital form before being applied to address locations in a look-up table of PCB which holds pre-calibrated cell outputs. Data from the look-up table is processed to obtain a corrected real time pressure value which is transmitted to the vehicle. If desired, a temperature value may also be transmitted.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,600,301 and 5,838,229 to Robinson, III describe a remote tire pressure monitoring system employing coded tire identification and radio frequency transmission, and enabling recalibration upon tire rotation or replacement. The system indicates low tire pressure in vehicles, in which each vehicle wheel has a transmitter with a unique code, i.e., the transmitter is internal of the tire. A central receiver in the vehicle is taught, at manufacture, to recognize the codes for the respective transmitters for the vehicle, and also a common transmitter code, in the event one of the transmitters needs to be replaced. During vehicle operation and maintenance, when the tires are rotated, the system can be recalibrated to relearn the locations of the transmitters. The transmitters employ surface acoustic wave devices. An application specific integrated circuit encoder in each transmitter is programmed at manufacture, in accordance with its unique code, to send its information at different intervals, to avoid clash between two or more transmitters on the vehicle. The transmitters are powered by long-life batteries.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,363 to Meyer, et al. describes a method for checking air pressure in vehicle wheel tires wherein a pressure signal characteristic for the air pressure in the tire is picked up as a measured signal by a measurement device located in or on the tire of each motor vehicle wheel. A data signal containing a measured air pressure value derived from the pressure signal as well as an identification value characteristic for the respective transmitter device is generated and output by a transmitter device located in or on the tire of each motor vehicle wheel. The data signal output by the transmitter devices will be received by a reception device located at a distance to the motor vehicle wheels. The identification value of the transmitter device contained in the data signal will be compared by a control unit to identification comparison values assigned to the respective transmitter devices such that further processing of the data signal by the control unit will
Breed David S.
DuVall Wilbur E.
Johnson Wendell C.
Allen Andre
Automotive Technologies International Inc.
Lefkowitz Edward
Roffe Brian
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