Upgrade for tyre tread footprint profiling system

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 14, 2005

Sensor Products has developed a next-generation version of its Tactilus tyre tread footprint profiling system.

Sensor Products has developed a next-generation version of its Tactilus tyre tread footprint profiling system.

Capable of thousands of uses with consistent repeatability, Tactilus now detects a wider range of pressures and offers greater advantages to engineers than its predecessor in the areas of adaptability and customisation.

Measuring and understanding vertically loaded tyre tread footprint pressure distribution is paramount to any tyre design process.

Improper tyre tread pressure distribution can result in bad road traction and high road noise, early tyre replacement, and in extreme cases, tyre failure.

Carlos Ruiz, Sensor Products' Tactilus Product Manager said: "Tactilus technology particularly lends itself to this sort of application.

Not only do the systems evaluate such low pressures with ease, but save time by providing information immediately with in-depth statistical data".

He added: "Really, the response time is so immediate, these systems are also ideal for assembly line assessment for OEMs and aftermarket product manufacturers".

In fact, well-known tyre companies have benefited from Tactilus in the past.

For example, in an effort to continually improve the tyre design process, Kumho America Technical Centre Manager Dr Hamid Aboutorabi, employed the Tactilus tyre tread pressure analysis system.

Aboutorabi said: "I used the system over a period of time to obtain several static footprint pressure distribution profiles of a loaded tyre".

"The profiles revealed some very uneven tyre tread surface contact areas".

"The pressure distribution patterns we discovered helped us redesign our tyres in pursuit of optimum tread surface contact and road handling properties".

In addition to Kumho America, other companies are using pressure mapping technologies from Sensor Products for tyre design including Bridgestone/Firestone, Goodyear, Apollo Tyres and Nokian Tyres.

Tactilus is an electronic sensor system that evaluates tactile contact pressures in real time.

The Tactilus tyre tread footprint profiling system comes equipped with all components necessary to collect data for comprehensive analysis, including the silicon substrate element with embedded matrix-based sensors, controller and user-friendly software.

The system may be employed for any application where two surfaces mate, contact or impact.

Not only is Tactilus conformable to highly curvaceous surfaces and intolerant environments, but is portable and runs on a standard laptop computer.

The upgraded feature-rich software for Tactilus offers 2D and 3D imaging, region-of-interest viewing, longitudinal and latitudinal analysis, graphical displays of data in bar, pressure versus time, line scan, histogram and isobar charts, statistical analysis of average/minimum/maximum pressures, total force over any selected area and more.

The data may also be exported to virtually any third party software.