Green Tire Uniformity Measurement Using High Speed Laser Profile Sensors
Green Tire Uniformity Measurement using High Speed Laser Profile Sensors
Introduction
Tire Uniformity refers to the dynamic mechanical properties of pneumatic tires as strictly defined by a set of measurement standards and test conditions accepted by global tire and car makers. These measurement standards include the parameters of radial force variation, lateral force variation, conicity, plysteer, radial runout, lateral runout, and sidewall bulge. Tire makers worldwide employ tire uniformity measurement as a way to identify poorly performing tires so they are not sold to the marketplace. Both tire and vehicle manufacturers seek to improve tire uniformity in order to improve vehicle ride comfort.
Tire Uniformity Engineers are tasked with improving uniformity by reducing variation at many steps in tire production – raw materials, component preparation, tire assembly, and curing. Executive Managers are tasked with making investments to modernize equipment to achieve those improvements. As improvements in mixing, calendering, and extrusion are realized it is more often than not the tire building process that presents the best opportunities for uniformity improvement. Green tires with better geometrical uniformity produce cured tires with better uniformity. This results in lower cost of scrap, fewer production problems, reduced uniformity grind rates, and better overall tire quality. The primary tire building non-uniformities are caused by component placement (centering and snaking), splicing (butt splice, overlapping splice, and skived splice), turn-ups, and stitching. This paper presents examples of these non-uniformities at each stage of assembly using the high speed laser profile sensor-based Green Tire Uniformity (GTU) system from Bytewise Measurement Systems. The GTU sensor is used to scan any stage of tire building, and the GTU software applies various analysis tools to determine radial runout, tread
Green Tire Uniformity Measurement using High
Introduction
Tire Uniformity refers to the dynamic mechanical properties of pneumatic tires as strictly defined by a set of measurement standards and test conditions accepted by global tire and car makers. These measurement standards include the parameters of radial force variation, lateral force variation, conicity, plysteer, radial runout, lateral runout, and sidewall bulge. Tire makers worldwide employ tire uniformity measurement as a way to identify poorly performing tires so they are not sold to the marketplace. Both tire and vehicle manufacturers seek to improve tire uniformity in order to improve vehicle ride comfort.
Tire Uniformity Engineers are tasked with improving uniformity by reducing variation at many steps in tire production – raw materials, component preparation, tire assembly, and curing. Executive Managers are tasked with making investments to modernize equipment to achieve those improvements. As improvements in mixing, calendering, and extrusion are realized it is more often than not the tire building process that presents the best opportunities for uniformity improvement. Green tires with better geometrical uniformity produce cured tires with better uniformity. This results in lower cost of scrap, fewer production problems, reduced uniformity grind rates, and better overall tire quality. The primary tire building non-uniformities are caused by component placement (centering and snaking), splicing (butt splice, overlapping splice, and skived splice), turn-ups, and stitching. This paper presents examples of these non-uniformities at each stage of assembly using the high speed laser profile sensor-based Green Tire Uniformity (GTU) system from Bytewise Measurement Systems. The GTU sensor is used to scan any stage of tire building, and the GTU software applies various analysis tools to determine radial runout, tread
Green Tire Uniformity Measurement using High