Patent ID: 6791695
Filing Date: 2004-09-14
Classification: G01B,G01M

Abstract:
An apparatus for performing electronic shearography on a tire, the apparatus comprising:a pressure chamber having a door movable between open and closed positions, an air handling system in communication with the interior of the pressure chamber for changing the ambient pressure in the pressure chamber, the air handling system including a humidity reducing mechanism in communication with the interior of the pressure chamber and being selectively operable to reduce the relative humidity in the interior of the pressure chamber, a shearography camera arranged in the pressure chamber for taking an interference image of a tire, an image processor coupled to the shearography camera, the image processor being adapted to receive a plurality of sequential interference images from the shearography camera, produce a set of a plurality of sequential shearogram images of the tire from the interference images and produce an animation from the set of sequential shearogram images to represent dynamically changing stress states on a tire, archive memory for retaining data corresponding to the animation received from the image processor, the retained animation data being compressed in such a manner that the retained animation data includes only preselected individual shearogram images from the set of sequential shearogram images and less than all of the image data associated with each preselected individual shearogram image, and a tire loading system for loading a tire into the pressure chamber through the pressure chamber door, the tire loading system including a tire support plate which is pivotable between a loading position wherein the tire support plate is arranged to support a tire in a generally vertical position substantially outside of the pressure chamber and an inspection position wherein the support plate is arranged to support a tire in a substantially horizontal position in the interior of the pressure chamber, the support plate being movable along a carriage which is adapted to automatically center a tire supported on the support plate relative to the shearography camera.