Measuring tire tread wear takes shape
Mounted inside of the tire, the company’s IntelliTread tire sensor technology uses wireless signals to track millimeter-scale changes in tread depth – a challenge given that tires are complex, heterogeneous structures composed of many raw materials with widely different properties. However, says the company, recent developments in sensor design and operation have produced repeatable results during tests in a variety of OEM passenger tires.
“With these recent results, Tyrata has demonstrated significant progress in moving from our early bench-top technology demonstrations towards real-world application of our sensors inside of a tire,” says Jesko von Windheim, Chief Executive Officer of Tyrata. “By demonstrating reproducible measurements in various consumer tires, we’ve achieved a major milestone in the development of our technology.
“Our next goal is long-term, in-tire testing. We are starting to evaluate a host of tires for IntelliTread integration and invite collaborators to join us in this next phase of evaluation.”
Through advances in sensor design and operation, along with electronics and packaging, the company says it has now successfully validated the technology in OEM passenger tires including steel belted radial tires from Hankook and Firestone. Sensors mounted to several sections from each tire produced predictable and repeatable responses when the tread was removed, one millimeter at a time.
Its latest technology, says the company, can monitor, track, and predict tread wear over the life of any tire. When a voltage is applied to the sensor, an electrical signal passes through the tire. As the rubber wears down, the signal changes. Sensor electronics use these signal changes to determine the tire’s tread depth, which can then be wirelessly transmitted for further analytics and/or displayed to the consumer.
This technology breakthrough, says the company, opens up the development of production-level packaging and on-vehicle integration and testing as the company moves forward in its commercialization of the IntelliTread technology.
Related articles:
Tire wear sensor startup moves closer to development, manufacturing
Printed tire sensor measures tread wear in real time
Concept tire for autonomous, flying cars
Scanning service measures tire tread on the go
If you enjoyed this article, you will like the following ones: don't miss them by subscribing to :
