Patent Document ID: 9029779
Application ID: 13704436
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A tire inspection method, comprising: imparting motion to a tire with a tire rotation device to present a first portion of a tire inner surface to a thermal energy source; providing thermal energy from the thermal energy source to the first portion of the tire surface; imparting motion to the tire with the tire rotation device to present the first portion of the tire inner surface to an infrared detector, the infrared detector being separated from the thermal energy source by an angular distance based on a center of the tire in the range of 5° to 30°; detecting infrared energy from the first portion of the tire inner surface with the infrared detector; generating a first infrared image of the first portion of the tire inner surface based at least in part on the infrared energy detected from the first portion of the tire inner surface; and analyzing the first infrared image with an image processing system using image subtraction to determine the presence of one or more anomalies in the tire inner surface; wherein imparting motion to the tire comprises continuously rotating the tire inner surface over the thermal energy source and the infrared detector.