A SEMI-AUTOMATED PULSE-ECHO ULTRASONIC SYSTEM FOR INSPECTING TIRES

A nondestructive tire-testing system has been developed using the pulse-echo ultrasonic technique, which offers substantial advantages over all other physical nondestructive-testing methods and shows promise of reducing the cost of production-tire inspection. Developed under the sponsorship of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHTSA (M.J. Lourenco, Program Director), the system was specifically designed to meet the requirements for detecting flaws in new tires. For this application, the reliable detection of possibly subtle flaws demands sophisticated techniques, but costs can be minimal because a high level of automation may be used. Work is underway to relate tire failure to anomalies observable by reflection ultrasonics. If satisfactory correlation can be demonstrated, the system may be used to screen larger samples of tires before testing for compliance with Motor Vehicle Standard 109. This report describes the ultrasonic techniques, explains the operation of the system and presents examples of data displays produced by the system test results from a small sample of tires.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • See also PB-231 201.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Systems Center

    55 Broadway, Kendall Square
    Cambridge, MA  United States  02142

    National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

    1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
    Washington, DC  United States  20590
  • Authors:
    • Ryan, R P
  • Publication Date: 1977-7

Media Info

  • Pagination: 58 p.

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 00167296
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
  • Report/Paper Numbers: DOT-TSC-NHTSA-76-3, DOT-HS-802-104, Interim Report
  • Files: NTIS, USDOT
  • Created Date: Nov 23 1977 12:00AM