Nondestructive Evaluation of Tires

Abstract The application of nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods to tires is a growing field. Increasingly more stringent demands have been placed on tire performance as vehicles have become more refined, roads have become better, fuel economy has become an important consideration, and the customer has become more critical. In addition, radial tires have become increasingly dominant, and the performance of radial tires is much more sensitive to the placement of components than is true for bias-ply or belted-bias tires. Therefore, it has become necessary to develop several different types of NDE equipment for tires. Quality-control instruments are needed to monitor production to keep tires within specifications. Inspection equipment is needed for retread candidate tires to cull out tires with unacceptable anomalies. Research and development equipment is needed to measure the effects of material, construction, and production variations on tire performance. NDE methods are being used to improve the efficiency of tire testing by separating out tires with pretest anomalies and by monitoring tires during testing. Increasing efforts are being made to use NDE methods to identify anomalies and material and construction factors which can be related to tire durability and other performance factors. At this time, x ray, holography, ultrasonics, and infrared are the most important NDE methods for tires. As NDE technology continues to evolve, more techniques will be developed, instrumentation will become more reliable and more automated, and more knowledge will be developed to relate tire performance to the features which NDE methods can detect.