Resilient tires and wheels – Tires – resilient – Pneumatic tire or inner tube
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-09
2002-03-19
Johnstone, Adrienne C. (Department: 1733)
Resilient tires and wheels
Tires, resilient
Pneumatic tire or inner tube
C073S146000, C073S514390, C152S525000, C156S110100, C156S123000, C156S272400, C156S379600, C324S174000, C701S070000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06357501
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vehicle wheel that is provided with a pneumatic tire and that has means for providing information. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for producing a tire for such a vehicle wheel.
The patents DE-195 03 468 and -9 disclose wheel bearing seal arrangements that have magnetizable elastomeric material and, to detect the rotation, are provided with a multi-pole ring that is disposed across from a sensor secured to the chassis.
EP 0 378 939 similarly describes a rotating seal having a magnetic coding as an indicator.
Aside from general shortcomings, such means for indicating the number of turns have the general drawback that they are not suitable for determining the information that is of interest for regulating slipping or sliding using the longitudinal forces that act upon the vehicle wheel.
In addition, the subject matter of the aforementioned documents are in principle not suitable for contributing any suggestion to the present invention.
The application PCT/EP95/03864 discloses a measuring system for detecting the longitudinal force of the tire and/or the tire deformation that is caused by the wheel load. The present invention is intended to serve in particular for the further development of this promising system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle wheel that is provided with a pneumatic (rubber) tire, with the aid of which the information required for operating a modern vehicle, e.g. wheel rotational speed for ABS (anti-lock brake system) and/or longitudinal forces (torsional forces) that act upon the tire for regulating slipping, can be made available. In particular, a high level of security against vandalism and sabotage is to be achieved.
This object is realized in that the tire of the vehicle wheel, at least at one predetermined location, contains a rubber mixture that is permeated with magnetizable particles. These magnetizable locations, e.g. an annular band in the sidewall of the tire, should in the longitudinal or peripheral direction have successive zones of different, which includes zero, magnetization (e.g. bar codes) in one or more rows, wherein if two or more rows are provided, the rows are disposed at different radii along the peripheral direction of the tire. Thus with the aid of a sensor that is secured to the chassis, not only can the rotational speed and direction of rotation of the respective wheel be provided, but rather while additionally avoiding a reading row of the bar code that is disposed further radially inwardly, in place thereof or in addition thereto time intervals between the passive outer and inner marks can be measured, the lengths of which correlate with the desired information for longitudinal force andlor tire deflection.
In the magnetized zones, the magnetic lines of flux preferably extend in the peripheral direction. In this connection, a signal spacing is achieved by different orientation or alignment of the lines of flux (polarity).
A further object of the present invention is to provide a method and a related apparatus for producing an inventive tire.
The method essentially comprises introducing ferromagnetic particles into the rubber mixture, preferably in the vicinity of the sidewall of the tire, and magnetizing zones of such ferromagnetic particles in the peripheral direction of the tire with alternating polarity, or magnetizing some particle zones and not others. In either case, distinct differences will exist from zone to zone. The magnetization is preferably achieved by means of magnetic lines of flux that extend in the peripheral direction. The rubber mixture is, for example, in the form of an annular band obtained by either a straight extrusion or a straight calenderation aligning the magnetizable particles in the direction of extrusion or calenderation and by forming the straight band into the annular band.
The polarization, which varies over the periphery, preferably alternating, is preferably effected after installation of the band that contains the magnetizable particles into the green tire, and in addition preferably after vulcanization thereof. More preferably, the polarization is effected after the tire is delivered to a customer, and most preferably only shortly prior to mounting of the tire on a wheel, so that the signal sequence stored in the tire in at least one row on at least one sidewall of the tire can be set precisely to the requirements of a vehicle that is to be equipped with the tire.
The inventive method can be carried out with an apparatus that comprises field coils that are disposed in the peripheral direction of the tire and are embodied in the form of two half coils; the field or magnetizing coils can be disposed in the inner and outer sides of the tire at the location of the magnetizable regions, and can have supplied thereto electrical current. For this purpose, the two half coils are movably interconnected by electrical lines. So that a closed circuit is formed, an electrical connection exists between in each case two coils in which oppositely connected magnetic fields are built up, while axially extending magnetic lines of flux can be simply generated by conventional magnets, allowing the aforementioned apparatus to generate lines of flux that extend in the peripheral direction of the tire. The polarized zones produced in the tire then similarly have lines of flux that extend in the peripheral direction, as a result of which the signals can be detected particularly reliably and easily by sensors that are preferably arranged in such a way that they follow the spring movements of the wheel suspension and pivoting movements due steering.
If the physical arrangement is such that the lines that run back and forth between the two coils are physically closely adjacent between the two coils, especially preferably snaked together, the magnetic fields that are generated by the current in these connecting lines are nearly eliminated.
The apparatus can comprise a plurality of coil pairs. Complicated wiring between the coils is then also possible, but always reverts to the same principle.
Any sequence of differing magnetization may include some distance or space between consecutive zones of differing magnetization resulting in intermediate zones of zero magnetization. Thus, the wording “two zones are differently magnetized” includes the case where one of these zones is magnetized and the other is not magnetized.
To additionally recognize the direction of rotation of a tire, it is necessary to provide a pattern or sequence of differing magnetization which is asymmetrical along the peripheral direction. The object of such an asymmetry is that a different sequence is provided depending upon whether the zones of differing magnetization are read forward or backward. To accomplish this, it is necessary to provide three successive zones that are all different from one another.
For attaining a strong and cost-efficient magnetization, it is preferred to use anywhere only such pairs of coils explained before. Any pair of coils results in a part-sequence of polarization as NSSN or SNNS, wherein “S” is used for a south-pole and “N” for a northpole. For receiving—using such pairs of coils—not only two but three different zones of magnetization, there should be inserted anywhere between different coils or—preferrably—between different pairs of coils a space of zero magnetization, addressed in the following by the symbol “
0
”. Thus, such a direction-determining part of a sequence of polarization may be NOS or vice versa. The important thing is that the entire sequence must on the whole be asymmetrical so that it reads differently forward than backward.
Such a sequence may be: NSS
N
0
S
NNSSNNS,NSS
N
0
S
NNSSNNS,NSS
N
0
S
NNSSNNS, . . . In this example the direction-determining parts of the sequence are underligned. The inserted commas should only help to recognize the repeating periods; they do not represent a space of zero magnetization.
The shape of the coils can be adapted to t
Becherer Thomas
Fehrle Martin
Kleinhoff Klaus
Becker R. W.
Continental Aktiengesellschaft
Johnstone Adrienne C.
R. W. Becker & Associates
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