JP2022173412A - Tire testing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent rubber debris generated by tire testing from adhering to a tire testing device or a test tire, thereby preventing malfunctions of the tire testing device.

SOLUTION: A tire testing method includes: a grounding step of grounding a test tire on a simulated road surface provided on an outer circumference of a rotating drum; a rotating step of rotating the rotating drum and the test tire grounded on the simulated road surface; and powder spraying step of spraying a powder on an outer surface of at least one of the rotating drum and the test tire to reduce adherence of rubber debris caused by abrasion of the test tire.

SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 12

COPYRIGHT: (C)2023,JPO&INPIT

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a tire testing method, a tire testing apparatus and a spreading apparatus.

Tire wear tests to evaluate the wear properties of tires include actual driving tests in which test tires are mounted on actual vehicles and run on the actual road surface under specified conditions to check the tire wear that occurs at this time. As described in JP-A-57-91440, a bench test (simulated test ).

In a tire testing machine that performs such a simulation test, rubber shavings generated by wear of the tire may adhere to various parts of the tire testing machine and cause failure of the tire testing machine.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to prevent rubber shavings generated by a tire wear test from adhering to a tire testing device or a test tire, thereby preventing failure of the tire testing device. and

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a grounding step of grounding a test tire on a simulated road surface provided on the outer circumference of a rotating drum; a rotating step of rotating the rotating drum and the test tire grounded on the simulated road surface; and a powder sprinkling step of sprinkling powder on at least one outer peripheral surface of the test tire to make it difficult for rubber shavings generated by abrasion of the test tire to adhere.

In the above tire test method, the powder spraying step includes a conveying step of conveying the powder at a constant rate, a dispersing step of dispersing the conveyed powder in gas, and a spraying step of spraying the gas in which the powder is dispersed onto the outer peripheral surface. , may be included.

In the tire testing method described above, in the spraying step, the powder-dispersed gas may be sprayed from the front in the running direction toward the contact portion between the simulated road surface and the test tire.

In the tire testing method described above, in the conveying step, the powder may be conveyed at a constant rate by rotating the screw, which is the conveying means, at a predetermined speed.

In the above tire testing method, the dispersing step includes a compressed gas supply step of supplying compressed gas to the ejector, a step of sucking the powder by the negative pressure generated by the ejector, and ejecting the powder dispersed in the gas from the ejector. and a jetting step.

In the tire testing method described above, the dispersing step may include an guiding step of guiding the gas ejected from the ejector to a position where it is to be sprayed through a pipeline, and the powder may be more uniformly dispersed in the gas in the guiding step.

In the tire testing method described above, the spraying step may be configured to spray the gas in which the powder is dispersed from a trumpet.

In the above tire test method, the powder may contain talc.

Further, according to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a conveying unit for quantitatively conveying the object to be dispersed, and the object to be dispersed conveyed by the conveying unit is sucked and the gas in which the object to be dispersed is dispersed is ejected. and an ejector for causing the sparging device.

According to this configuration, a spraying device capable of spraying the object to be sprayed quantitatively (for example, continuously at a constant amount per unit time) is provided.

In the spraying device described above, the conveying section may include a screw, a cylindrical case that accommodates the screw, and a driving section that rotates the screw at a predetermined number of revolutions.

In the spraying device described above, the screw may be a substantially cylindrical member having a spiral groove formed on its outer peripheral surface.

The above spraying device has a hopper in which the material to be sprayed is stored, the inlet of the case opens upward at one end in the axial direction of the case, and the outlet of the hopper formed at the bottom of the hopper is connected to the inlet. may be configured.

In the spraying device, the hopper includes a stirrer for stirring the object to be sprayed in the hopper, the hopper has a cylindrical inner peripheral surface, and the stirrer rotates while being in contact with the inner peripheral surface of the hopper. It is good also as a structure which has a mover.

In the spraying device, the stirrer includes a rod that is arranged concentrically with the inner peripheral surface of the hopper and rotates around the axis of the inner peripheral surface, and a branch that extends from the side surface of the rod toward the inner peripheral surface of the hopper. , and a slider holder that holds the slider and is attached to the branch.

The spraying device may have a plurality of sliders arranged at different positions in the axial direction of the hopper.

In the spraying device described above, two sliders that are adjacent in the axial direction of the hopper may be arranged at different positions in the turning direction.

In the spraying device described above, the first pipe line for guiding the object to be sprayed transported by the transporting section to the ejector is provided. may be connected to an inlet of a straight pipe extending downward, and the outlet of the straight pipe and the inlet of the first pipeline may be vertically opposed to each other with a gap therebetween.

Further, according to still another embodiment of the present invention, a rotating drum provided with a simulated road surface on its outer peripheral surface, a tire holding section that rotatably retains a test tire in contact with the simulated road surface, and a rotating drum and a drive unit that rotates the tire holding unit, and the above-described spraying device that sprays powder that makes it difficult for rubber shavings generated by wear of the test tire to adhere to the outer peripheral surface of at least one of the rotating drum and the test tire. , a tire testing apparatus is provided.

Further, according to still another embodiment of the present invention, a rotating drum provided with a simulated road surface on its outer periphery, a tire holding section that rotatably holds a test tire in contact with the simulated road surface, and Equipped with a torque generating section that generates a torque to be applied, and a rotation driving section that includes a motor that is an electric motor that rotationally drives a rotating drum, and the torque generating section is coaxially attached to a case that is rotatably supported. and a servomotor, which is an electric motor, and a rotary drive section that rotationally drives the case of the torque generating section.

According to this configuration, since a hydraulic system is not used, it is possible to prevent environmental pollution caused by hydraulic oil, and it is possible to reduce energy consumption compared to conventional devices using hydraulic pressure. In addition, by introducing a torque generator (torque generator), it becomes possible to divide the two roles of rotational drive and torque generation into two motors, so it is possible to use a small motor with a low capacity. It becomes possible, and further energy saving and space saving become possible.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the simulated road surface may be formed by a plurality of simulated road surface units that can be attached to and detached from the outer circumference of the rotating drum.

According to this configuration, it becomes possible to manufacture the simulated road surface unit as a prefabricated unit, and to improve production efficiency.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the simulated road surface unit may include a frame that can be attached to and detached from the outer periphery of the rotating drum, and a simulated road surface body that can be attached to and detached from the surface of the frame.

According to this configuration, replacement of the simulated road surface member, which is a consumable item, is facilitated. In addition, it becomes possible to increase variations of the simulated road surface body at low cost.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the simulated road surface may be made of a material containing an aggregate and a binder that binds the aggregate.

In the above tire testing device, the aggregate comprises ceramic pieces,
The binder may contain a curable resin.

In the above tire testing apparatus, the simulated road surface may be made of the same material (or different material) as the actual road surface.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the simulated road surface may have a plurality of running lanes arranged in the axial direction of the rotating drum.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the plurality of running lanes may be made of the same material (or different materials).

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the tire holding section may include a travel lane switching mechanism capable of switching the travel lane in which the rotating drum travels by moving the rotating drum in the axial direction.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, a relay section for relaying transmission of power from the rotational drive section to the torque generation section, a first connection means for connecting the rotational drive section and the relay section, and a relay section and the torque generation section. and a second connection means for connecting the second connection means includes a winding transmission mechanism, and the winding transmission mechanism includes a passive pulley coaxially attached to the case of the torque generating part. good too.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the rotary drive section includes a power coupling section, the power coupling section having an input shaft to which a motor is connected, one end connected to the first coupling means, and the other end connected to the shaft of the rotating drum. and an output shaft to which is connected.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the relay portion includes a first gear connected to the first connecting means, a second gear meshed with the first gear and connected to the second connecting means, and one of the first gear and the second gear is configured to be movable in the direction of the distance from the other so that the distance between the rotation axes of the first gear and the second gear can be changed. and one of the first connecting means and the second connecting means, which is connected to one of the gears, includes a drive shaft having universal joints at both ends and having a variable length. good too.

In the tire testing device described above, the torque generating section has a first shaft connected to the shaft of the servomotor, and the case has a cylindrical shape with an opening formed at one end for allowing the first shaft to pass through, The servomotor and one end portion of the first shaft may be accommodated in the case, and the other end portion of the first shaft may be exposed to the outside of the case through the opening.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the tire holding section includes a spindle section that rotatably holds the test tire, and an alignment mechanism that can adjust the alignment of the test tire with respect to the simulated road surface by changing the position or orientation of the spindle section. , the spindle portion may include a wheel portion on which a tire is mounted, and a spindle to which the wheel portion is coaxially attached to one end and rotatably supported.

The tire testing apparatus described above may include third connecting means for connecting the first shaft of the torque generating section and the spindle, and the third connecting means may include a constant velocity joint.

In the above-mentioned tire testing device, the tire holding part rotates the spindle case that rotatably supports the spindle, and the spindle case that rotates around an axis that is perpendicular to the ground contact surface where the test tire contacts the simulated road surface and passes through the center of the wheel part. and a camber angle adjustment mechanism capable of adjusting the camber angle of the test tire by rotating the spindle case around an axis that passes through the contact patch and is perpendicular to the spindle. and a tire load adjusting mechanism capable of adjusting the vertical load of the test tire by moving the spindle case in a direction perpendicular to the ground contact surface.

The above-mentioned tire testing apparatus may be configured to include the above-mentioned spraying device for spraying a powder that makes it difficult for rubber crumbs generated by abrasion of the test tire to adhere to the outer periphery of at least one of the rotating drum and the test tire.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to prevent rubber shavings generated by a tire test from adhering to a tire testing device or a test tire, thereby preventing failure of the tire testing device.

1 is a plan view of a tire testing device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a front view of a tire testing device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a right side view of a tire testing device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a left side view of a tire testing device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a control system; FIG. 4 is an external view of a simulated road surface unit; FIG. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a simulated road surface unit; It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a torque generating part. FIG. 4 is a side view of the camber adjustment mechanism; 1 is a schematic diagram of a two-dimensional profile of a tread of a tire; FIG. It is a figure which shows the schematic structure of a lubricating material distribution apparatus. FIG. 5 is a plan view of a tire testing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention; It is a front view of a tire testing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same or corresponding components are denoted by the same or corresponding reference numerals, and overlapping descriptions are omitted.

1 to 4 are a plan view, a front view, a right side view and a left side view, respectively, of a tire testing device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 to 4, illustration of a part of the tire testing apparatus 1 is omitted for convenience of explanation. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the control system 1a of the tire testing device 1. As shown in FIG.

In the following description, as indicated by the coordinates in FIG. 1, the direction from left to right in FIG. is defined as the Z-axis direction. The X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction are horizontal directions perpendicular to each other, and the Z-axis direction is a vertical direction.

The tire testing apparatus 1 rotates the rotating drum 22 and the test tire T for a predetermined time (for example, 24 hours) in a state where the test tire T is grounded on the simulated road surface 23b provided on the outer periphery of the rotating drum 22, thereby testing the test tire. It is a device that can perform a bench test of a tire in which T is worn under conditions close to the actual running test. The tire testing apparatus 1 of this embodiment achieves high energy utilization efficiency by adopting an electric motor and a power circulation system in the drive system. Further, by adopting a torque generator, which will be described later, it is possible to independently perform rotation control and torque control by providing dedicated motors for the two functions of rotation driving and torque application. As a result, torque control with a high degree of freedom and high precision becomes possible, and at the same time, it becomes possible to reduce the capacity of the electric motor, thereby making it possible to reduce the size and power consumption of the test apparatus. In addition, by using an ultra-low inertia servo motor with excellent acceleration performance for the torque generator, it is possible to accurately reproduce torque fluctuations with high frequency components during sudden starts and sudden braking.

The tire testing apparatus 1 includes a tire holding section 10 that holds a test tire T, a road surface section 20 that has a simulated road surface 23b on which the test tire T is grounded, a rotation driving section 30 that rotationally drives a power circulation circuit, and a test tire T. and a relay portion 40 for relaying power transmission from the rotation drive portion 30 to the torque generation portion 50 . In addition, the tire testing apparatus 1 includes a first connecting means (drive shaft 62) that connects the rotation driving portion 30 and the relay portion 40, and a second connecting means (V belt) that connects the relay portion 40 and the torque generating portion 50. 66) and third connecting means (constant velocity joint 64) for connecting the torque generating portion 50 and the tire holding portion 10 (spindle 152). The road surface portion 20, the rotation driving portion 30, the relay portion 40, the torque generating portion 50, and the spindle portion 15, which will be described later, of the tire holding portion 10 are annularly connected via the test tire T to form a power circulation circuit. .

In this embodiment, the rotary drum 22 is arranged with its rotation axis directed in the Y-axis direction, but for example, in the X-axis direction, the Z-axis direction, or an intermediate direction thereof (for example, each of the X-axis and Z-axis and 45 The rotation axis of the rotary drum 22 may be directed in the direction forming an angle of .degree. In that case, the orientation and arrangement of other parts of the tire testing apparatus 1 are also changed according to the orientation of the rotating drum 22 .

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the control system 1a of the tire testing apparatus 1 includes a central control unit 70 that controls the operation of the entire testing apparatus, and various sensors based on signals from various sensors provided in the tire testing apparatus 1. and an interface unit 90 for input/output with the outside.

As shown in FIG. 1-4, the road surface portion 20 includes a rotating drum 22, a simulated road surface portion 23 provided on the outer peripheral portion of the rotating drum 22, and a bearing portion 24 that rotatably supports a shaft 22a of the rotating drum 22. It has The bearing portion 24 includes a rotary encoder 241 (FIG. 5) that detects the rotation speed of the rotary drum 22 . The simulated road surface portion 23 of the present embodiment is formed by a plurality of simulated road surface units 231 (FIGS. 6 and 7) that are arranged circumferentially around the outer periphery of the rotary drum 22 without gaps.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the simulated road surface unit 231 attached to the outer circumference of the rotating drum 22. As shown in FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the simulated road surface unit 231 cut along the cut plane AA' shown in FIG. The simulated road surface unit 231 includes a frame 231a, simulated road surface bodies 231b (231b1, 231b2) fitted in recesses 231ad formed on the surface of the frame 231a, and the simulated road surface body 231b sandwiched between the frame 231a. A pair of left and right pressing plates 231c are provided. The pressing plate 231c is fixed to the frame 231a by a plurality of countersunk screws 231d. In addition, through holes 231ah through which bolts for fixing the simulated road surface unit 231 to the rotating drum 22 pass are formed at both ends of the frame 231a in the width direction (horizontal direction in FIG. 7).

The simulated road surface 23b is formed by the surfaces of a plurality of simulated road surfaces 231b arranged in the circumferential direction. The simulated road surface body 231b of this embodiment is composed of two circumferentially extending portions (a first portion 231b1 on the left half and a second portion 231b2 on the right half in FIG. 7) made of different materials. The first portion 231b1 forms a first travel lane 23b1, which will be described later, and the second portion 231b2 forms a second travel lane 23b2.

Note that the entire simulated road surface body 231b may be uniformly formed from a single material. Further, the simulated road surface body 231b of this embodiment is formed in a cylindrical shape with a smooth surface. The surface may be provided with unevenness in the circumferential direction (or in both the circumferential direction and the width direction) by varying randomly or randomly.

Further, in this embodiment, the simulated road surface body 231b which is formed in advance is attached to the frame 231a by the pressing plate 231c. The simulated road surface body 231b may be directly bolted to the frame 231a. Alternatively, the simulated road surface body 231b may be fixed to the surface of the simulated road surface unit 231 by filling the concave portion 231ad with a plastic material such as concrete or curable resin and hardening the material.

The simulated road surface body 231b is made by adding a curable resin such as urethane resin or epoxy resin to aggregate obtained by pulverizing (further polishing if necessary) ceramics having excellent wear resistance such as silicon carbide or alumina. It is a member obtained by molding and curing a material to which a binding agent (binder) is added.

In the present embodiment, the simulated road surface 23b is divided into two running lanes (a first running lane 23b1 and a second running lane 23b2) in the axial direction (width direction) of the rotary drum 22. As shown in FIG. Although two driving lanes are formed on the simulated road surface 23b in this embodiment, a single driving lane or three or more driving lanes may be formed. The two running lanes 23b1 and 23b2 of the simulated road surface 23b are formed by changing the particle size and amount of aggregate used. The first running lane 23b1 on the right side in the direction of travel is a simulated road surface that simulates a smooth road surface such as an asphalt pavement road surface, and the second running lane 23b2 on the left side is a simulated road surface that simulates a rough road surface such as stone pavement. be. By switching the running lanes 23b1 and 23b2 of the simulated road surface 23b on which the test tire T is grounded, the road surface conditions can be changed. The switching of the running lane is performed by a traverse mechanism 11 (running lane switching mechanism) of the tire holding portion 10, which will be described later.

The rotary drive unit 30 includes a motor 32 and a power coupling unit 34 that couples the power output from the motor 32 to a power circulation circuit. The motor 32 is driven and controlled by an inverter circuit 32a (FIG. 5). A shaft 32 b of the motor 32 is coupled with an input shaft 34 a of the power coupling section 34 . One end 34b1 of the output shaft 34b of the power coupling portion 34 is coupled with the shaft 22a of the rotary drum 22, and the other end 34b2 of the output shaft 34b is coupled with one end of the drive shaft 62. As shown in FIG. The output shaft 34b of the power coupling portion 34 constitutes a part of the power circulation circuit, and the output shaft of the motor 32 is coupled to the power circulation circuit via the power coupling portion 34. As shown in FIG. That is, the motor 32 rotates the power circulation circuit and controls the number of revolutions of the power circulation circuit.

The relay portion 40 includes a gear box 42, a drive pulley 44, a bearing portion 45 that rotatably supports the shaft of the drive pulley 44, and a tension pulley that applies a predetermined tension to a V-belt 66 wound around the drive pulley 44. 46 and a bearing portion 47 that rotatably supports the shaft of the tension pulley 46 .

The gearbox 42 includes a first gear 42a coupled to the other end of the drive shaft 62 and a second gear 42b meshing with the first gear 42a. The second gear 42b is coupled with the shaft of the drive pulley 44. As shown in FIG. In this embodiment, since the number of teeth of the first gear 42a and the number of teeth of the second gear 42b are the same, the gearbox 42 converts the rotation input from the drive shaft 62 into constant-velocity reverse rotation to drive the gear. It is transmitted to the pulley 44 .

The first gear 42a and the second gear 42b can be replaced with gears having different numbers of teeth (diameters). For example, the number of teeth of the first gear 42a and the number of teeth of the second gear 42b may be different so that the gear box 42 increases or decreases the rotation speed. In order to change the number of teeth of the first gear 42a and the second gear 42b, the distance between the rotation axes of the first gear 42a and the second gear 42b can be changed. Specifically, the position of the rotation axis of the second gear 42b is fixed, and the position of the rotation axis of the first gear 42a moves laterally (distance direction from the second gear 42b, that is, the X-axis direction). It is possible. When changing the number of teeth of each gear, the position of the rotating shaft of the first gear 42a is laterally moved to adjust the engagement with the second gear 42b. Universal joints 621 are provided at both ends, and a drive shaft 62 having a variable length connects the rotary drive unit 30 (specifically, the other end 34b2 of the output shaft 34b of the power coupling unit 34) and the first gear 42a. ing. Therefore, even if the first gear 42a moves laterally, the drive shaft 62 and the first gear 42a are not distorted, and smooth rotation of the power circulation circuit is maintained.

FIG. 8 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the torque generator 50 (torque generator). The torque generating unit 50 includes an outer cylinder 51 (case), a servomotor 52, a speed reducer 53 and a shaft 54 provided in the outer cylinder 51, and three bearings 55, 55 that rotatably support the outer cylinder 51. , 56 , a slip ring portion 57 (a slip ring 57 a and a brush 57 b ), a bearing portion 58 that rotatably supports the slip ring 57 a , and a driven pulley 59 .

In this embodiment, the servomotor 52 is an ultra-low inertia high output type AC servomotor with a moment of inertia of the rotating part of 0.01 kg·m ² or less and a rated output of 7 kW to 37 kW. As shown in FIG. 5, the servomotor 52 is connected to the central control unit 70 via a servo amplifier 52a.

The outer cylinder 51 has a cylindrical motor accommodating portion 512 and a reducer holding portion 513 having a large diameter, and substantially cylindrical shaft portions 514 and 516 having a small diameter. A shaft portion 514 is coaxially coupled to one end (the right end in FIG. 8) of the motor accommodating portion 512 (that is, so that the rotation axes are aligned). A shaft portion 516 is coaxially coupled to the other end (left end in FIG. 8) of the motor accommodating portion 512 via a reducer holding portion 513 . The shaft portion 514 is rotatably supported by the bearing portion 56 , and the shaft portion 516 is rotatably supported by the pair of bearing portions 55 .

A driven pulley 59 coupled to the shaft portion 516 is arranged between the pair of bearing portions 55 . The outer cylinder 51 is rotationally driven by a V-belt 66 ( FIG. 1 ) wound around the driving pulley 44 of the relay portion 40 via a driven pulley 59 .

Bearings 517 are provided at both ends of the inner periphery of the shaft portion 516 . The shaft 54 is inserted into the hollow portion of the shaft portion 516 and rotatably supported by the shaft portion 516 via a pair of bearings 517 . The shaft 54 passes through the shaft portion 516 , one end of which protrudes into the reduction gear holding portion 513 and the other end of which protrudes outside the outer cylinder 51 .

A servo motor 52 is housed in the hollow portion of the motor housing portion 512 . The servomotor 52 has its shaft 521 arranged coaxially with the motor housing portion 512 , and the motor case is fixed to the motor housing portion 512 by a plurality of rods 523 . Also, the flange 522 of the servomotor 52 is coupled to the gear case 53a of the speed reducer 53 via a connecting tube 524. As shown in FIG. A gear case 53 a of the speed reducer 53 is fixed to an inner flange 513 a of the speed reducer holding portion 513 .

A shaft 521 of the servo motor 52 is connected to an input shaft 531 of the speed reducer 53 . A shaft 54 is connected to the output shaft 532 of the speed reducer 53 . Torque output from the servomotor 52 is amplified by the reduction gear 53 and transmitted to the shaft 54 . The rotation of the shaft 54 is the sum of the rotation of the outer cylinder 51 driven by the motor 32 of the rotary drive unit 30 and the rotation driven by the servomotor 52 .

A slip ring 57 a is connected to the shaft portion 514 of the outer cylinder 51 . A brush 57b in contact with the slip ring 57a is supported by a fixed frame 58a of the bearing portion 58. As shown in FIG. A cable 525 of the servo motor 52 is passed through the hollow portion of the shaft portion 514 and connected to the slip ring 57a. Also, the brush 57b is connected to the servo amplifier 52a (FIG. 5). That is, the servo motor 52 and the servo amplifier 52 a are connected via the slip ring portion 57 .

Next, the configuration of the tire holding portion 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1-3 and 9. FIG. FIG. 9 is a rear view (partial cross-sectional view) of the tire holding portion 10. FIG. The tire holding unit 10 is a mechanical unit that rotatably holds the test tire T while grounding it on the simulated road surface 23b with a predetermined alignment and applying a predetermined load. The tire holding section 10 includes four vertically stacked base plates 101, 102, 103, and 104, and a spindle section 15 that holds the test tire T rotatably. The tire holding unit 10 also includes a traverse mechanism 11, a camber angle adjusting mechanism 12, a tire load adjusting mechanism 13, and a slip angle adjusting mechanism 14 as alignment mechanisms for the test tire T. FIG. The alignment mechanism is a mechanism that can adjust the alignment of the test tire T with respect to the simulated road surface 23b by changing the position or orientation of the spindle portion 15 .

The traverse mechanism 11 (driving lane switching mechanism) moves the base plate 102 in the Y-axis direction with respect to the base plate 101, thereby moving the position of the test tire T in the axial direction, thereby bringing the test tire T into contact with the simulated road surface 23b. This is a mechanism for switching between the running lanes 23b1 and 23b2. The traverse mechanism 11 includes a plurality of linear guides 111 that guide the base plate 102 in the axial direction (Y-axis direction) of the rotating drum 22 with respect to the base plate 101, a servomotor 112 that drives the baseplate 102, and a rotary motion of the servomotor 112. is provided with a ball screw 113 (feed screw mechanism) that converts to linear motion in the Y-axis direction. The ball screw 113 has a screw shaft 113a and a nut 113b.

Each linear guide 111 has a rail 111a and one or more carriages 111b that can travel on the rail 111a via rolling elements (not shown). A rail 111 a of the linear guide 111 is attached to the upper surface of the base plate 101 and a carriage 111 b is attached to the lower surface of the base plate 102 . That is, the base plate 101 and the base plate 102 are connected via a plurality of linear guides 111 so as to be slidable in the Y-axis direction.

A servo motor 112 is attached to the base plate 101 with its axis directed in the Y-axis direction. The shaft of the servomotor 112 is coupled with the screw shaft 113a of the ball screw 113, and the nut 113b is attached to the lower surface of the base plate 102. As shown in FIG. By driving the servo motor 112 , the base plate 102 moves in the Y-axis direction with respect to the base plate 101 . As a result, the position of the test tire T relative to the rotating drum 22 is moved in the Y-axis direction, and the running lanes 23b1 and 23b2 of the simulated road surface 23b on which the test tire T is grounded are switched.

As shown in FIG. 5, the servomotor 112 is connected to the central control unit 70 via a servo amplifier 112a. The switching operation of the driving lane by the servomotor 112 is controlled by the central control unit 70 .

FIG. 9 is a rear view showing the upper portion of the tire holding portion 10. FIG. The camber angle adjustment mechanism 12 is a mechanism that adjusts the camber angle of the test tire T by turning the base plate 103 around the Z axis with respect to the base plate 102 . The camber angle adjustment mechanism 12 includes a vertically extending shaft 121, a bearing 122 that rotatably supports the shaft 121, a curved guide 123 that guides the turning of the base plate 103 about the shaft 121, and a shaft that extends in the Y-axis direction. It has a servomotor 124 attached to the base plate 102 and a ball screw 125 (feed screw mechanism) that converts the rotary motion of the servomotor 124 into linear motion in the Y-axis direction.

A shaft 121 is attached to the base plate 103 and a bearing 122 is attached to the base plate 102 . The bearing 122 is provided with a rotary encoder 122a (camber angle detection means) shown in FIG. 5 for detecting the angular position (ie camber angle) of the shaft 121 . In addition, the shaft 121 is arranged directly under the contact surface where the test tire T contacts the rotary drum 22 . Specifically, the center line (rotational axis) of the shaft 121 is a straight line passing through the spindle 152 and the vertical ground plane. The curved guide 123 includes a rail 123a extending in an arc concentric with the shaft 121, and a carriage 123b capable of traveling on the rail 123a via rolling elements (not shown). The rail 123 a is attached to the upper surface of the base plate 102 and the carriage 123 b is attached to the lower surface of the base plate 103 . A screw shaft 125a of the ball screw 125 is coupled to the shaft of the servomotor 124, and a nut 125b is attached to the base plate 103 via a hinge 126 that can swing around the vertical axis. By driving the servo motor 124, the base plate 103 pivots about the axis 121 and the camber angle of the test tire T is changed.

As shown in FIG. 5, the servo motor 124 is connected to the central control section 70 via a servo amplifier 124a. The camber angle adjustment operation by the servomotor 124 is controlled by the central control unit 70 .

The tire load adjustment mechanism 13 moves the test tire T in the radial direction by moving the base plate 104 in the X-axis direction with respect to the base plate 103, and adjusts the vertical load (ground pressure) applied to the test tire T. mechanism. The tire load adjustment mechanism 13 includes a plurality of linear guides 131 that guide the base plate 104 in the radial direction (X-axis direction) of the rotating drum 22 with respect to the base plate 103, a servomotor 132 that drives the baseplate 104, and the servomotor 132. It has a ball screw 133 (feed screw mechanism) that converts rotary motion into linear motion in the X-axis direction.

The linear guide 131 includes a rail 131a extending in the X-axis direction and a carriage 131b capable of traveling on the rail via rolling elements. A rail 131 a of the linear guide 131 is attached to the upper surface of the base plate 103 and a carriage 131 b is attached to the lower surface of the base plate 104 .

A servo motor 132 is attached to the base plate 103 with its axis directed in the X-axis direction. The shaft of the servomotor 132 is coupled to the screw shaft 133a of the ball screw 133, and the nut 133b is attached to the base plate 104. As shown in FIG. By driving the servo motor 132, the base plate 104 moves in the X-axis direction with respect to the base plate 103 together with the nut 133b. As a result, the center distance between the rotating drum 22 and the test tire T changes, and the load on the test tire T changes.

As shown in FIG. 5, the servomotor 132 is connected to the central control section 70 via a servo amplifier 132a. The load adjustment operation of the test tire T by the servomotor 132 is controlled by the central control section 70 .

The slip angle adjusting mechanism 14 rotates the spindle portion 15 about the X-axis with respect to the base plate 104, thereby tilting the rotation axis of the test tire T about the X-axis with respect to the rotation axis of the rotating drum 22. This is a mechanism for adjusting the slip angle of T.

The slip angle adjusting mechanism 14 includes a shaft 141 whose one end is fixed to the spindle case 154 (bearing portion) of the spindle portion 15 and extends in the Y-axis direction, and the shaft 141 around the X-axis (that is, around the axis perpendicular to the ground surface). ), a servomotor 143, and a ball screw 144 (feed screw mechanism). The bearing 142 has a rotary encoder 142a (FIG. 5) that detects the angular position of the shaft 141 (ie, the slip angle of the test tire T). A center line (rotational axis) of the shaft 141 passes through substantially the center of the wheel portion 156 and is arranged perpendicular to the rotation axis of the wheel portion 156 . The servomotor 143 is attached to the base plate 104 via a hinge 143b capable of swinging around the Y-axis with its axis directed substantially in the Z-axis direction. The shaft of the servomotor 143 is coupled with the screw shaft 144a of the ball screw 144. As shown in FIG. In addition, the nut 144b of the ball screw 144 is attached to one end of the spindle case 154 in the X-axis direction (a location away from the center of the shaft 141 in the X-axis direction) via a hinge 146 that can swing about the Y-axis. It is

By driving the servo motor 143 to move the nut 144 b of the ball screw 144 up and down, the spindle case 154 rotates together with the shaft 141 . As a result, the slip angle of the test tire T held by the spindle portion 15 changes.

As shown in FIG. 5, the servo motor 143 is connected to the central control section 70 via a servo amplifier 143a. The adjustment operation of the slip angle by the servomotor 143 is controlled by the central control unit 70 .

The spindle section 15 includes a spindle 152 , a spindle case 154 (bearing section) that rotatably supports the spindle 152 , and a wheel section 156 that is coaxially attached to one end of the spindle 152 . A test tire T is mounted on the wheel portion 156 . The spindle 152 includes a torque sensor 152a that detects the torque applied to the test tire T, and three component forces applied to the test tire T (that is, the force in the X-axis direction [Radial Force; load], the force in the Y-axis direction [Lateral Force; A three-component force sensor 152b (FIG. 5) is provided for detecting a lateral force] and a force in the Z-axis direction [Tractive Force; tangential force]. The spindle case 154 also includes a rotary encoder 154b (FIG. 5) that detects the number of rotations of the spindle (that is, the test tire T). Since piezoelectric elements are used for both the torque sensor 152a and the three-component force sensor 152b, the spindle 152 and the spindle case 154 have high rigidity, which enables highly accurate measurement. The wheel portion 156 also includes an air pressure sensor 156a (FIG. 5) for detecting the air pressure of the test tire T. As shown in FIG.

The tire holding unit 10 is provided with a tire temperature control system 18 (only the air duct 182a is shown in FIG. 2) for adjusting the temperature of the test tire T by blowing cold air or hot air onto the test tire T. As shown in FIG. The temperature of the test tire T (in particular, the temperature of the tread surface) during the test (running) affects the test result (amount of wear). Therefore, it is desirable to keep the temperature of the tread surface of the test tire T within a certain temperature range (for example, 35±5° C.) during the test. Also, in the measurement of the wear amount of the test tire T, which will be described later, the temperature of the test tire T affects the measurement results. In order to accurately measure the amount of wear, it is necessary to adjust the temperature of the test tire T to a predetermined reference temperature (for example, 25° C.) during measurement. Therefore, using the tire temperature control system 18, the temperature of the test tire T is adjusted to a set temperature during testing and wear measurement.

The tire temperature control system 18 ( FIG. 5 ) includes a controller 181 , a spot air conditioner 182 and a temperature sensor 183 . The temperature sensor 183 is a non-contact temperature sensor (radiation thermometer) that measures the temperature of the tread surface of the test tire T, and is arranged to face the tread surface. Based on the measurement result of the temperature sensor 183, the control unit 181 controls the operation of the spot air-conditioning device 182 so as to eliminate the deviation from the set temperature, and blows cold or hot air onto the tread surface of the test tire T. Or blow room temperature air. The preset temperature of the test tire T can be set to different values during testing (during running) and during wear measurement. In addition, different set temperatures can be set according to the type of test tire T. Further, the tire temperature control system 18 may be further provided with a temperature sensor for measuring the room temperature, and the operation of the spot air conditioner 182 may be controlled based on the room temperature and the temperature of the test tire T.

The tire temperature control system 18 of this embodiment is configured to adjust the temperature of the test tire T by blowing hot air or cold air onto the test tire T using the spot air conditioner 182. The tire temperature control system is not limited to this configuration. For example, the temperature of the test tire T may be adjusted by providing a cover (constant room) that surrounds the entire test tire T and adjusting the air temperature inside the cover.

Also, the set temperature at the time of testing may be set according to the climate of the region where the tire is used. Also, tire wear is accelerated by an increase in temperature. Therefore, an accelerated aging test can also be performed by using the tire temperature control system 18 to adjust the temperature of the test tire T during testing to be higher than the temperature of the tire during normal driving.

The tire holding section 10 also includes a two-dimensional laser displacement sensor 17 (hereinafter abbreviated as "displacement sensor 17") used to measure the wear amount of the tread of the test tire T. As shown in FIG. The displacement sensor 17 detects a two-dimensional profile of the tread surface of the test tire T (a cross-sectional shape cut by a plane containing the rotation axis of the tire) using a laser beam (laser light sheet) spread into a belt shape by a cylindrical lens. Non-contact measurement.

As shown in FIG. 5, the displacement sensor 17 is connected to the measuring section 80 and functions together with the measuring section 80 as a wear measuring section. The measurement unit 80 controls the operation of the displacement sensor 17 and calculates the wear amount of the test tire T based on the two-dimensional profile acquired by the displacement sensor 17 .

The two-dimensional profile measurement by the wear measuring unit is performed before and after the tire test (additionally during the test) while the test tire T is stationary. Based on the two-dimensional profile measured before and after (and during) the test, the wear amount of the test tire T caused by the test is calculated. As described above, the measured value of tire wear is affected by the temperature of the tire. It is desirable to conduct the test after the tire as a whole has reached a predetermined reference temperature.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a two-dimensional profile of the tread surface of the test tire T obtained by two-dimensional profile measurement using the wear measuring section. In FIG. 10, the horizontal axis (Y) indicates the position in the width direction of the test tire T, and the vertical axis (H) indicates the position in the height direction of the groove of the test tire T (radial direction of the test tire T). Four grooves G1, G2, G3 and G4 extending in the circumferential direction are formed in the test tire T. As shown in FIG. By image analysis of the two-dimensional profile, the U-shaped concave portion in the two-dimensional profile is associated with each of the grooves G1 to G4.

Neighboring regions L1 and R1, L2 and R2, L3 and R3, and L4 and R4 are set in predetermined ranges on both sides in the width direction (Y-axis direction) of each of the grooves G1 to G4. Hereinafter, the n-th groove is denoted by Gn, and the neighboring regions of the trench Gn are denoted by Ln and Rn. A neighboring region on the negative side of the horizontal axis (left side in FIG. 10) of the groove Gn is called a neighboring region Ln, and a neighboring region of the groove Gn on the positive side of the horizontal axis (right side in FIG. 10) is called a neighboring region Rn. The neighboring region Ln (Rn) is set, for example, as a region extending from the left end (right end) of the groove Gn to half the width of the groove Gn.

The depth Dn of the groove Gn is calculated, for example, as the difference between the average value of the height H in the neighboring regions Ln and Rn and the average value of the height H in the groove Gn. Also, the wear amount Wn of each groove Gn before and after the test is calculated as the difference in the depth Dn of the groove Gn before and after the test. Also, an average wear amount W of the test tire T is calculated as an average value of the wear amounts W1 to W4.

In addition to (or instead of) the groove depth Dn described above, a minimum groove depth Dn _min may be calculated. The minimum groove depth Dn _min of the groove Gn is, for example, the average value of the minimum value of the height H in the neighboring region Ln and the minimum value of the height H in the neighboring region Rn, and the maximum value of the height H in the groove Gn. calculated as the difference between In this case, the minimum groove depth Dn _min may be used instead of the groove depth Dn to calculate the wear amount Wn and the average wear amount W.

The method of calculating the amount of wear Wn and the average amount of wear W is not limited to those exemplified above, and other methods may be used. For example, in the above example, the depth Dn of the groove Gn and the minimum groove depth Dn _min are calculated using the heights H of both the neighboring regions Ln and Rn. The height H of one (for example, the one closer to the center in the width direction of the test tire T) may be used to calculate the depth Dn of the groove Gn and the like. In addition, by the method of least squares, etc., for the grooves G1 to G4 and the parts other than the grooves G1 to G4, approximate curves (for example, quadratic curves) of the two-dimensional profiles are obtained, and the average distance of both approximate curves before and after the test The average wear amount W may be calculated as the difference between .

In addition to the wear amount Wn and the average wear amount W of each groove Gn, the wear measurement unit 17 measures the wear amount W _L per unit traveling distance (for example, 1 km) and the wear amount W per unit traveling time (for example, one hour). Calculate and display _T.

The tire holding unit 10 includes a lubricant spraying device 16 (powder spraying device) that sprays a lubricant (spreading object) on the tread surface of the test tire T and the simulated road surface 23 b of the rotary drum 22 . The lubricant spraying device 16 sprays a mixture of lubricant dispersed in the air from the running direction front (upper side in FIG. 1) of the contact portion between the test tire T and the simulated road surface 23b. As a result, malfunctions and failures caused by rubber powder generated by wear of the test tire T adhering to each part of the tire testing apparatus 1 are prevented. In addition, the spread of the lubricant reduces the influence of the rubber powder adhering to the test tire T, the simulated road surface 23b, etc., on the test results, and improves the test accuracy.

Nonflammable powder such as talc (hydrated magnesium silicate) is used as the lubricant. This prevents dust explosions, eliminates the need for safety measures against dust explosions such as explosion-proof equipment, and makes it possible to greatly reduce initial costs and running costs.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of the lubricant distribution device 16. As shown in FIG. The lubricant spraying device 16 includes a hopper 161 (storage unit) in which the lubricant is stored, a stirrer 162 that agitates the inside of the hopper 161, a drive unit 163 that drives the stirrer 162 to rotate, and a lubricant that is supplied quantitatively. A fixed quantity conveying portion 164 for conveying, an ejector 166 for sucking the lubricant, mixing it with air and ejecting it, a pipeline 165 for guiding the lubricant from the fixed quantity conveying portion 164 to the ejector 166, and the lubricant from the ejector 166 to the spraying position. It has a conduit 167 for guiding dispersed air and a trumpet 168 attached to the tip of the conduit 167 .

The stirrer 162 includes a rod 162a extending vertically, three pairs of branches 162b extending vertically from the side surface of the rod 162a toward the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 in the radial direction, and the tips of the pairs of branches 162b. It has three shoe holding portions 162c (slider holding portions) attached thereto, and three shoes 162d (sliders) held by the shoe mounting portions 162c. The rod 162 a is arranged concentrically with the cylindrical inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 , and one end thereof is connected to the driving portion 163 . Each shoe 162d is arranged so that the tip thereof contacts the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161, and turns along the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 while scraping off the lubricant adhering to the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161. In this embodiment, a brush made of, for example, conductive (or antistatic) resin is used as the shoe 162d. During operation of the tire testing apparatus 1 , the lubricant in the hopper 161 is constantly stirred by the stirrer 162 . As a result, it is possible to prevent fluctuations in the supply amount of the lubricant and interruption of the supply due to aggregation and clogging of the lubricant in the hopper 161 . Since the lubricant adheres to the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 and tends to become a starting point of agglomeration, clogging of the lubricant is effectively prevented by rubbing the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 with the tip of the shoe 162d. Stable supply becomes possible.

Although a brush is used as the shoe 162d in this embodiment, a member other than the brush (for example, a sponge or sheet having rubber elasticity) may be used as the shoe 162d. Due to the elasticity of the shoe 162d, the shoe 162d is pressed against the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 with an appropriate force, and the lubricant adhered to the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 is rubbed off. Also, if the shoe 162d does not have appropriate elasticity, the shoe attachment portion 162c and the branch portion 162b may be provided with elasticity. For example, by using a plate spring for the branch portion 162b, the shoe 162d can be pressed against the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 by the elastic force of the plate spring. In addition, by using the resin or rubber shoe 162d, the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 is prevented from being scratched or worn due to sliding of the shoe 162d.

Also, by using the shoe 162d made of a conductive material (for example, a synthetic resin in which carbon black is kneaded), accumulation of lubricant on the surface of the shoe 162d due to static electricity is prevented.

The drive unit 163 includes a motor 163m, a driver 163md (FIG. 5) that supplies a drive current to the motor 163m, and a reducer 163g that reduces the rotational speed of the output of the motor 163m.

Although the axes of the hopper 161 and stirrer 162 are oriented vertically in this embodiment, they may be oriented vertically (that is, the axes may be tilted with respect to the vertical).

The fixed-quantity conveying unit 164 includes a cylindrical case 164a having a cylindrical hollow portion, a substantially cylindrical screw 164b concentrically accommodated in the hollow portion of the case 164a, and a driving unit 164c for rotating the screw 164b. ing. The drive unit 164c has a servo motor 164cm and a servo amplifier 164cma that supplies drive current to the servo motor 164cm. Instead of the servo motor 164 cm, other types of motors capable of controlling the number of revolutions may be used.

The screw 164b has a substantially cylindrical main body portion 164b1 with a spiral groove formed on its outer periphery, and a shaft portion 164b2 that is thinner than the main body portion 164b1 and extends axially from both axial ends of the main body portion 164b1. Bearing holes 164a1 rotatably fitted to the shaft portions 164b2 are formed at both ends of the case 164a in the axial direction. One of the shaft portions 164b2 is connected to the shaft of the driving portion 164c.

Openings are provided at both ends in the axial direction of the case 164a. An inlet 164a2, which is one of the openings, is formed on the upper surface at one end of the case 164a. The outlet 164a3, which is the other opening, is formed on the lower surface of the case 164a on the other end side. A discharge port of the hopper 161 is connected to the inlet 164a2, and a vertically extending straight pipe 164d is connected to the outlet 164a3.

A single spiral groove is formed on the outer circumference of the screw 164b. The spiral groove has a semicircular cross section. In addition, although the pitch of the spiral grooves is constant in this embodiment, the pitch may be unequal. Also, a plurality of spiral grooves (multiple spiral structure) may be formed in the screw 164b. The outer diameter of the main body portion 164b1 of the screw 164b is slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the hollow portion of the case 164a. If the gap between the outer peripheral surface of the screw 164b and the inner peripheral surface of the case is narrow, the lubricant will clog the gap and the frictional resistance will increase.

As the screw 164b rotates, the lubricant moves from the inlet 164a2 toward the outlet 164a3 in the hollow portion of the case 164a and is discharged from the straight pipe 164d. Since the amount of lubricant conveyed per rotation of the screw 164b is constant, rotating the screw 164b at a constant speed makes it possible to continuously supply the lubricant at a constant speed. Also, by changing the rotation speed of the screw 164b, it is possible to adjust the supply speed of the lubricant.

The ejector 166 operates with compressed air supplied from the pipe 166a as a drive source, and ejects the compressed air at high speed from the built-in nozzle toward the discharge side, thereby reducing the suction port connected to the pipe 165. The pressure is applied to suck the lubricant from the suction port, and the air in which the lubricant is dispersed is ejected from the discharge port to which the pipe line 167 is connected.

The inlet of the pipe line 165 is vertically opposed to the outlet of the straight pipe 164d of the fixed-quantity conveying unit 164 with a gap G interposed therebetween. Due to the negative pressure generated by the ejector 166 , air flows into the conduit 165 through the gap G. The lubricant dropped from the outlet of the straight pipe 164d is introduced into the pipe line 165 by the air flowing from the gap G.

Further, the tip of the conduit 167 (trumpet 168) is arranged directly above the contact portion between the test tire T and the simulated road surface 23b. The air containing the lubricant ejected from the ejector 166 passes through the conduit 167 and is ejected from the trumpet 168 toward the ground. Further, as shown in FIG. 11, the test tire T and the rotating drum 22 are rotationally driven in a direction in which the contact portion moves downward. That is, the lubricant is jetted from the front in the running direction toward the ground contact portion.

By using the lubricant spraying device 16 described above to spray the lubricant in front of the contact portion between the test tire T and the simulated road surface 23b, the rubber shavings generated by the wear of the test tire T disperse into the test tire T and the tire. Adhesion to the testing apparatus 1 is prevented, and deterioration of test accuracy and failure of the tire testing apparatus 1 due to adhesion of rubber scraps are prevented.

As shown in FIG. 5, the motor 163m of the driving section 163 and the servomotor 164cm of the fixed quantity conveying section 164 of the lubricant spraying device 16 are connected to the central control section . The operation of the lubricant applicator 16 is controlled by a central controller 70 .

As shown in FIG. 5, the interface unit 90 of the control system 1a includes, for example, a user interface for inputting and outputting data with a user, a network interface for connecting to various networks such as a LAN (Local Area Network), It has one or more of various communication interfaces such as USB (Universal Serial Bus) and GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus) for connecting with external devices. The user interface includes, for example, various operation switches, displays, various display devices such as LCD (liquid crystal display), various pointing devices such as mice and touch pads, touch screens, video cameras, printers, scanners, buzzers, speakers, etc. , microphone, memory card reader/writer, etc.

The displacement sensor 17, rotary encoders 122a, 142a, 154b and 241, torque sensor 152a, 3-component force sensor 152b, air pressure sensor 156a and temperature sensor 183 are connected to the measurement unit 80. FIG. Based on the signals from the sensors, the measurement unit 80 measures the torque applied to the test tire T, the load (Radial Force), the tangential force (Tractive Force) and the lateral force (Lateral Force), the rotation speed of the test tire T, the camber angle, The slip angle, the temperature and air pressure of the tread surface, the rotational speed of the rotary drum 22 and the road surface speed (peripheral speed of the rotary drum 22) are measured, and these measured values are transmitted to the central control unit 70. The road surface speed is calculated from the rotational speed of the rotary drum 22 measured by the rotary encoder 241 .

The central control unit 70 displays the measured value acquired from the measuring unit 80 on the display device according to the setting, and stores the measured value in the nonvolatile memory 71 together with the measurement time.

Servo motors 52, 112, 124, 132, 143 and 164cm are connected to the central control unit 70 via servo amplifiers 52a, 112a, 124a, 132a, 143a and 164cma, respectively. Also, motors 32 and 163m are connected to the central control unit 70 via an inverter circuit 32a and a driver 163md, respectively. Furthermore, a spot air conditioner 182 and a temperature sensor 183 are connected to the central control unit 70 via a control unit 181 of the tire temperature control system 18 .

In the test using the tire testing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, a tire having a design that serves as a reference in advance (hereinafter referred to as a "reference tire") is mounted on an actual vehicle and the wear state is examined when the tire is run. Then, the test conditions are adjusted so that the same wear condition as in the actual running test is reproduced in the bench test by the tire test device 1, and tires of various designs are tested under the adjusted test conditions (referred to as "adjusted test conditions"). is tested. The reference tire is selected from tires relatively similar in design to the tire to be tested. For example, a reference tire is set for each of a passenger car tire and a bus/truck tire.

According to the embodiment of the present invention described above, since the electric motor is used without using the hydraulic system, it is possible to greatly reduce the amount of electricity used as compared with the conventional test apparatus.

Moreover, since the power consumption is small, the tire testing apparatus 1 can be stably operated even when the power supply is restricted due to a large-scale disaster or the like.

Also, since no hydraulic system is used, there is no problem of environmental pollution caused by hydraulic oil.

In addition, since rubber tires degrade when they come into contact with hydraulic fluid, it is difficult to perform accurate tests in a test environment contaminated with hydraulic fluid. If the tire testing apparatus 1 of this embodiment is used, the test tire T will not be contaminated with hydraulic oil, so more accurate testing can be performed.

In addition, in the present embodiment, the torque generating unit 50 (torque generating device) is an ultra-low-inertia high-output AC having a moment of inertia of the rotating portion of 0.01 kg·m ² or less and a rated output of 22 kW (7 kW to 37 kW). By using a servo motor, it is possible to generate sudden torque fluctuations, and it is possible to accurately reproduce torque changes with complex waveforms.

In addition, in the conventional power circulation system, the torque is first applied to the power circulation circuit, and the rotational drive is started when the torque is applied, so the torque cannot be changed during the test. , could only apply a constant torque. In the tire testing apparatus 1 of this embodiment, by adopting a configuration in which a torque generator equipped with an ultra-low-inertia high-output AC servomotor is incorporated into a power circulation circuit, a high-speed (high-frequency) and complex It is possible to give a large amount of torque fluctuation to the test piece, and it is possible to accurately simulate tests under severe and complicated conditions such as sudden acceleration and deceleration during high-speed running and ABS brake tests.

In addition, in the conventional configuration using a single drive motor, the drive motor is required to rotate at high speed and large torque, so a large capacity motor of 600 kW or more is required even for testing passenger car tires. . However, by adopting the torque generating device of the present embodiment, the role of each motor is divided into low-speed, large-torque driving and high-speed, low-torque driving, so the capacity of the servo motor 52 of the torque generating section 50 is sufficient at 22 kW. Since the capacity of the motor 32 of the rotation drive unit 30 is also sufficient with 37 kW, the total capacity is sufficient with 60 kW, and it is possible to reduce the necessary electricity consumption to about 1/10. It should be noted that the test equipment suitable for testing truck and bus tires reduces the amount of electricity used to about 1/13. In addition, when using a hydraulic motor, electricity is used to control the temperature of the hydraulic oil even when it is not in operation. It can be reduced to 15 or so.

Also, by using a low-capacity motor, it is possible to reduce the manufacturing cost and also to make the device smaller.

Moreover, in the tire testing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, by forming the simulated road surface 23b using a new composite material, the durability of the simulated road surface 23b is improved and the running cost can be reduced. Further, if the simulated road surface 23b of this embodiment is used, it becomes possible to perform tests that accurately simulate various road surfaces by changing aggregates and binders.

(Second embodiment)
Next, a second embodiment of the invention will be described. 12 and 13 are a plan view and a front view, respectively, of a tire testing device 1000 according to a second embodiment of the invention. For convenience of explanation, each figure shows a part of the tire testing apparatus 1000 in cross section. In addition, the same or corresponding reference numerals are given to components that are common or correspond to those of the first embodiment, and overlapping descriptions are omitted.

The tire testing apparatus 1000 of this embodiment is configured so that a single testing apparatus can test passenger car tires and bus/truck tires.

The tire testing apparatus 1000 has two power circulation circuits (power circulation circuit A and power circulation circuit B) that share a part of the relay section 1040 (the gearbox 1042 and the shaft 1049) and the road surface section 1020 (rotating drum 1022). It is equipped so that two test tires T1 and T2 can be tested at the same time.

Also, in this embodiment, the rotary drive unit 1030 is installed on the frame 1020F of the road surface portion 1020, and the power of the motor 1032 is applied to the drive pulley 1034 coupled to the shaft of the motor 1032, the V-belt 1068, and the shaft of the rotary drum 1022. It is configured to be transmitted to each power circulation circuit A, B via a driven pulley 1025 and a rotating drum 1022 coupled to 1022a.

Two pairs of drive pulleys 1044A and 1044B and driven pulleys 1048A and 1048B are provided in the relay portions 1040A and 1040B, respectively. One set has a reduction ratio suitable for testing passenger car tires, and the other set has a reduction ratio suitable for testing bus and truck tires. V-belts 1066A and 1066B are wound around pulley pairs for passenger car tires when testing passenger car tires, and around pulley pairs for bus truck tires when testing bus truck tires. Only by changing the V-belts 1066A and 1066B, it is possible to change the speed reduction ratio suitable for various tires.

The relay section 1040 has one first gear 1042a and two second gears 1042b. Through holes are provided in the centers of the first gear 1042a and the second gear 1042b, respectively. Shafts 1041A and 1041B having driven pulleys 1048A and 1048B attached to their ends are passed through the through holes in a non-contact manner. The other ends of the shafts 1041A, 1041B are connected to the shafts 1051A, 1051B of the torque generating portions 1050A, 1050B. Also, each second gear 1042b is coupled to the outer cylinder 1051 of the torque generating portions 1050A and 1050B.

The above is the description of one embodiment of the present invention. Embodiments of the present invention are not limited to those described above, and various modifications are possible. For example, the embodiments of the present application also include configurations in which configurations such as embodiments exemplified in this specification and/or configurations such as embodiments that are obvious to those skilled in the art from the descriptions in this specification are combined as appropriate. .

In the above-described embodiment, the position of the rotation axis of the first gear 42a of the relay section 40 is configured to be horizontally movable. good. In this case, the second gear 42b and the drive pulley 44 are connected by, for example, a drive shaft 62 having a universal joint so as to allow movement of the second gear 42b.

Although a V-belt is used as the second connecting means in the above embodiment, a flat belt, toothed belt, or other belt may be used as the second connecting means. Alternatively, a chain, wire, or other wrap-around joint may be used as the second connecting means. In addition, in the above-described first embodiment, the relay portion 40 and the torque generating portion 50 are connected by one V-belt, but they may be connected by a plurality of second connecting means connected in parallel or in series. Also, when connecting a plurality of second connecting means in series, different types of second connecting means may be used in combination.

The present invention relates to tire testing equipment.

Tire wear tests to evaluate the wear properties of tires include actual driving tests in which test tires are mounted on actual vehicles and run on actual road surfaces under predetermined conditions to examine the tire wear that occurs at this time . As described in Document 1 , there is a bench test (simulated test) in which the tire is worn by rotating the rotating drum and the tire while the tire is in contact with the outer peripheral surface of the rotating drum (simulated road surface).

JP-A-57-91440

An object of one aspect of the present invention is to provide a tire testing apparatus capable of applying torque fluctuations to a test piece.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a rotating drum provided with a simulated road surface on its outer periphery, a rotary drive unit including a first electric motor for rotating the rotating drum, and a test tire in contact with the simulated road surface. A rotatably holding tire holding portion, a torque generating portion that generates torque that applies braking force or driving force to the test tire, and a relay portion that relays power transmission from the rotational driving portion to the torque generating portion, The torque generating section includes a case rotatably supported and a second electric motor attached to the case, the rotary driving section rotationally drives the case of the torque generating section, and the relay section is coupled to the rotating drum. and a gearbox connecting the shaft and the case of the torque generator, wherein the shaft and the torque generator are arranged side by side.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the gear box may include a first gear coupled to the shaft and a second gear coupled to the case of the torque generating section and meshing with the first gear.

The tire testing apparatus described above, wherein the test tire is coupled to the shaft of the second electric motor,
The rotating drum, the relay section, and the torque generating section may be connected in an annular fashion via the test tire to form a power circulation circuit.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a rotating drum provided with a simulated road surface on its outer periphery, a rotary drive unit including a first electric motor for rotating the rotating drum, and a test tire grounded on the simulated road surface a pair of tire holders that rotatably hold the test tire in a state, a pair of torque generators that generate torque to apply braking force or driving force to each test tire, and relay power transmission from the rotation drive unit to each torque generator and a relay portion, wherein the torque generating portion includes a case rotatably supported and a second electric motor attached to the case, the rotation driving portion rotationally drives the case of the torque generating portion, Provided is a tire testing device in which a relay unit includes a shaft connected to a rotating drum and a gear box connecting the shaft and a case of each torque generation unit, and the shaft and a pair of torque generation units are arranged side by side. be done.

In the above tire testing apparatus, the gear box may include a first gear coupled to the shaft, and a pair of second gears coupled to the case of each torque generating section and meshing with the first gear. .

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the test tire is connected to the corresponding shaft of the second electric motor, and the rotating drum, the relay section, and each torque generating section are annularly connected via the corresponding test tire to form a power circulation circuit. It is good also as the composition which carried out.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tire testing apparatus capable of applying torque fluctuations to a test piece.

1 is a plan view of a tire testing device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a front view of a tire testing device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a right side view of a tire testing device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a left side view of a tire testing device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a control system; FIG. 4 is an external view of a simulated road surface unit; FIG. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a simulated road surface unit; It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a torque generating part. FIG. 4 is a side view of the camber adjustment mechanism; 1 is a schematic diagram of a two-dimensional profile of a tread of a tire; FIG. It is a figure which shows the schematic structure of a lubricating material distribution apparatus. FIG. 5 is a plan view of a tire testing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention; It is a front view of a tire testing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same or corresponding components are denoted by the same or corresponding reference numerals, and overlapping descriptions are omitted.

1 to 4 are a plan view, a front view, a right side view and a left side view, respectively, of a tire testing device 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 to 4, illustration of a part of the tire testing apparatus 1 is omitted for convenience of explanation. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the control system 1a of the tire testing device 1. As shown in FIG.

In the following description, as indicated by the coordinates in FIG. 1, the direction from left to right in FIG. is defined as the Z-axis direction. The X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction are horizontal directions perpendicular to each other, and the Z-axis direction is a vertical direction.

The tire testing apparatus 1 rotates the rotating drum 22 and the test tire T for a predetermined time (for example, 24 hours) in a state where the test tire T is grounded on the simulated road surface 23b provided on the outer periphery of the rotating drum 22, thereby testing the test tire. It is a device that can perform a bench test of a tire in which T is worn under conditions close to the actual running test. The tire testing apparatus 1 of this embodiment achieves high energy utilization efficiency by adopting an electric motor and a power circulation system in the drive system. Further, by adopting a torque generator, which will be described later, it is possible to independently perform rotation control and torque control by providing dedicated motors for the two functions of rotation driving and torque application. As a result, torque control with a high degree of freedom and high precision becomes possible, and at the same time, it becomes possible to reduce the capacity of the electric motor, thereby making it possible to reduce the size and power consumption of the test apparatus. In addition, by using an ultra-low inertia servo motor with excellent acceleration performance for the torque generator, it is possible to accurately reproduce torque fluctuations with high frequency components during sudden starts and sudden braking.

The tire testing apparatus 1 includes a tire holding section 10 that holds a test tire T, a road surface section 20 that has a simulated road surface 23b on which the test tire T is grounded, a rotation driving section 30 that rotationally drives a power circulation circuit, and a test tire T. and a relay portion 40 for relaying power transmission from the rotation drive portion 30 to the torque generation portion 50 . In addition, the tire testing apparatus 1 includes a first connecting means (drive shaft 62) that connects the rotation driving portion 30 and the relay portion 40, and a second connecting means (V belt) that connects the relay portion 40 and the torque generating portion 50. 66) and third connecting means (constant velocity joint 64) for connecting the torque generating portion 50 and the tire holding portion 10 (spindle 152). The road surface portion 20, the rotation driving portion 30, the relay portion 40, the torque generating portion 50, and the spindle portion 15, which will be described later, of the tire holding portion 10 are annularly connected via the test tire T to form a power circulation circuit. .

In this embodiment, the rotary drum 22 is arranged with its rotation axis directed in the Y-axis direction, but for example, in the X-axis direction, the Z-axis direction, or an intermediate direction thereof (for example, each of the X-axis and Z-axis and 45 The rotation axis of the rotary drum 22 may be directed in the direction forming an angle of .degree. In that case, the orientation and arrangement of other parts of the tire testing apparatus 1 are also changed according to the orientation of the rotating drum 22 .

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the control system 1a of the tire testing apparatus 1 includes a central control unit 70 that controls the operation of the entire testing apparatus, and various sensors based on signals from various sensors provided in the tire testing apparatus 1. and an interface unit 90 for input/output with the outside.

As shown in FIG. 1-4, the road surface portion 20 includes a rotating drum 22, a simulated road surface portion 23 provided on the outer peripheral portion of the rotating drum 22, and a bearing portion 24 that rotatably supports a shaft 22a of the rotating drum 22. It has The bearing portion 24 includes a rotary encoder 241 (FIG. 5) that detects the rotation speed of the rotary drum 22 . The simulated road surface portion 23 of the present embodiment is formed by a plurality of simulated road surface units 231 (FIGS. 6 and 7) that are arranged circumferentially around the outer periphery of the rotary drum 22 without gaps.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the simulated road surface unit 231 attached to the outer circumference of the rotating drum 22. As shown in FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the simulated road surface unit 231 cut along the cut plane AA' shown in FIG. The simulated road surface unit 231 includes a frame 231a, simulated road surface bodies 231b (231b1, 231b2) fitted in recesses 231ad formed on the surface of the frame 231a, and the simulated road surface body 231b sandwiched between the frame 231a. A pair of left and right pressing plates 231c are provided. The pressing plate 231c is fixed to the frame 231a by a plurality of countersunk screws 231d. In addition, through holes 231ah through which bolts for fixing the simulated road surface unit 231 to the rotating drum 22 pass are formed at both ends of the frame 231a in the width direction (horizontal direction in FIG. 7).

The simulated road surface 23b is formed by the surfaces of a plurality of simulated road surfaces 231b arranged in the circumferential direction. The simulated road surface body 231b of this embodiment is composed of two circumferentially extending portions (a first portion 231b1 on the left half and a second portion 231b2 on the right half in FIG. 7) made of different materials. The first portion 231b1 forms a first travel lane 23b1, which will be described later, and the second portion 231b2 forms a second travel lane 23b2.

Note that the entire simulated road surface body 231b may be uniformly formed from a single material. Further, the simulated road surface body 231b of this embodiment is formed in a cylindrical shape with a smooth surface. The surface may be provided with unevenness in the circumferential direction (or in both the circumferential direction and the width direction) by varying randomly or randomly.

Further, in this embodiment, the simulated road surface body 231b which is formed in advance is attached to the frame 231a by the pressing plate 231c. The simulated road surface body 231b may be directly bolted to the frame 231a. Alternatively, the simulated road surface body 231b may be fixed to the surface of the simulated road surface unit 231 by filling the concave portion 231ad with a plastic material such as concrete or curable resin and hardening the material.

The simulated road surface body 231b is made by adding a curable resin such as urethane resin or epoxy resin to aggregate obtained by pulverizing (further polishing if necessary) ceramics having excellent wear resistance such as silicon carbide or alumina. It is a member obtained by molding and curing a material to which a binding agent (binder) is added.

In the present embodiment, the simulated road surface 23b is divided into two running lanes (a first running lane 23b1 and a second running lane 23b2) in the axial direction (width direction) of the rotary drum 22. As shown in FIG. Although two driving lanes are formed on the simulated road surface 23b in this embodiment, a single driving lane or three or more driving lanes may be formed. The two running lanes 23b1 and 23b2 of the simulated road surface 23b are formed by changing the particle size and amount of aggregate used. The first running lane 23b1 on the right side in the direction of travel is a simulated road surface that simulates a smooth road surface such as an asphalt pavement road surface, and the second running lane 23b2 on the left side is a simulated road surface that simulates a rough road surface such as stone pavement. be. By switching the running lanes 23b1 and 23b2 of the simulated road surface 23b on which the test tire T is grounded, the road surface conditions can be changed. The switching of the running lane is performed by a traverse mechanism 11 (running lane switching mechanism) of the tire holding portion 10, which will be described later.

The rotary drive unit 30 includes a motor 32 and a power coupling unit 34 that couples the power output from the motor 32 to a power circulation circuit. The motor 32 is driven and controlled by an inverter circuit 32a (FIG. 5). A shaft 32 b of the motor 32 is coupled with an input shaft 34 a of the power coupling section 34 . One end 34b1 of the output shaft 34b of the power coupling portion 34 is coupled with the shaft 22a of the rotary drum 22, and the other end 34b2 of the output shaft 34b is coupled with one end of the drive shaft 62. As shown in FIG. The output shaft 34b of the power coupling portion 34 constitutes a part of the power circulation circuit, and the output shaft of the motor 32 is coupled to the power circulation circuit via the power coupling portion 34. As shown in FIG. That is, the motor 32 rotates the power circulation circuit and controls the number of revolutions of the power circulation circuit.

The relay portion 40 includes a gear box 42, a drive pulley 44, a bearing portion 45 that rotatably supports the shaft of the drive pulley 44, and a tension pulley that applies a predetermined tension to a V-belt 66 wound around the drive pulley 44. 46 and a bearing portion 47 that rotatably supports the shaft of the tension pulley 46 .

The gearbox 42 includes a first gear 42a coupled to the other end of the drive shaft 62 and a second gear 42b meshing with the first gear 42a. The second gear 42b is coupled with the shaft of the drive pulley 44. As shown in FIG. In this embodiment, since the number of teeth of the first gear 42a and the number of teeth of the second gear 42b are the same, the gearbox 42 converts the rotation input from the drive shaft 62 into constant-velocity reverse rotation to drive the gear. It is transmitted to the pulley 44 .

The first gear 42a and the second gear 42b can be replaced with gears having different numbers of teeth (diameters). For example, the number of teeth of the first gear 42a and the number of teeth of the second gear 42b may be different so that the gear box 42 increases or decreases the rotation speed. In order to change the number of teeth of the first gear 42a and the second gear 42b, the distance between the rotation axes of the first gear 42a and the second gear 42b can be changed. Specifically, the position of the rotation axis of the second gear 42b is fixed, and the position of the rotation axis of the first gear 42a moves laterally (distance direction from the second gear 42b, that is, the X-axis direction). It is possible. When changing the number of teeth of each gear, the position of the rotating shaft of the first gear 42a is laterally moved to adjust the engagement with the second gear 42b. Universal joints 621 are provided at both ends, and a drive shaft 62 having a variable length connects the rotary drive unit 30 (specifically, the other end 34b2 of the output shaft 34b of the power coupling unit 34) and the first gear 42a. ing. Therefore, even if the first gear 42a moves laterally, the drive shaft 62 and the first gear 42a are not distorted, and smooth rotation of the power circulation circuit is maintained.

FIG. 8 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the torque generator 50 (torque generator). The torque generating unit 50 includes an outer cylinder 51 (case), a servomotor 52, a speed reducer 53 and a shaft 54 provided in the outer cylinder 51, and three bearings 55, 55 that rotatably support the outer cylinder 51. , 56 , a slip ring portion 57 (a slip ring 57 a and a brush 57 b ), a bearing portion 58 that rotatably supports the slip ring 57 a , and a driven pulley 59 .

In this embodiment, the servomotor 52 is an ultra-low inertia high output type AC servomotor with a moment of inertia of the rotating part of 0.01 kg·m ² or less and a rated output of 7 kW to 37 kW. As shown in FIG. 5, the servomotor 52 is connected to the central control unit 70 via a servo amplifier 52a.

The outer cylinder 51 has a cylindrical motor accommodating portion 512 and a reducer holding portion 513 having a large diameter, and substantially cylindrical shaft portions 514 and 516 having a small diameter. A shaft portion 514 is coaxially coupled to one end (the right end in FIG. 8) of the motor accommodating portion 512 (that is, so that the rotation axes are aligned). A shaft portion 516 is coaxially coupled to the other end (left end in FIG. 8) of the motor accommodating portion 512 via a reducer holding portion 513 . The shaft portion 514 is rotatably supported by the bearing portion 56 , and the shaft portion 516 is rotatably supported by the pair of bearing portions 55 .

A driven pulley 59 coupled to the shaft portion 516 is arranged between the pair of bearing portions 55 . The outer cylinder 51 is rotationally driven by a V-belt 66 ( FIG. 1 ) wound around the driving pulley 44 of the relay portion 40 via a driven pulley 59 .

Bearings 517 are provided at both ends of the inner periphery of the shaft portion 516 . The shaft 54 is inserted into the hollow portion of the shaft portion 516 and rotatably supported by the shaft portion 516 via a pair of bearings 517 . The shaft 54 passes through the shaft portion 516 , one end of which protrudes into the reduction gear holding portion 513 and the other end of which protrudes outside the outer cylinder 51 .

A servo motor 52 is housed in the hollow portion of the motor housing portion 512 . The servomotor 52 has its shaft 521 arranged coaxially with the motor housing portion 512 , and the motor case is fixed to the motor housing portion 512 by a plurality of rods 523 . Also, the flange 522 of the servomotor 52 is coupled to the gear case 53a of the speed reducer 53 via a connecting tube 524. As shown in FIG. A gear case 53 a of the speed reducer 53 is fixed to an inner flange 513 a of the speed reducer holding portion 513 .

A shaft 521 of the servo motor 52 is connected to an input shaft 531 of the speed reducer 53 . A shaft 54 is connected to the output shaft 532 of the speed reducer 53 . Torque output from the servomotor 52 is amplified by the reduction gear 53 and transmitted to the shaft 54 . The rotation of the shaft 54 is the sum of the rotation of the outer cylinder 51 driven by the motor 32 of the rotary drive unit 30 and the rotation driven by the servomotor 52 .

A slip ring 57 a is connected to the shaft portion 514 of the outer cylinder 51 . A brush 57b in contact with the slip ring 57a is supported by a fixed frame 58a of the bearing portion 58. As shown in FIG. A cable 525 of the servo motor 52 is passed through the hollow portion of the shaft portion 514 and connected to the slip ring 57a. Also, the brush 57b is connected to the servo amplifier 52a (FIG. 5). That is, the servo motor 52 and the servo amplifier 52 a are connected via the slip ring portion 57 .

Next, the configuration of the tire holding portion 10 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1-3 and 9. FIG. FIG. 9 is a rear view (partial cross-sectional view) of the tire holding portion 10. FIG. The tire holding unit 10 is a mechanical unit that rotatably holds the test tire T while grounding it on the simulated road surface 23b with a predetermined alignment and applying a predetermined load. The tire holding section 10 includes four vertically stacked base plates 101, 102, 103, and 104, and a spindle section 15 that holds the test tire T rotatably. The tire holding unit 10 also includes a traverse mechanism 11, a camber angle adjusting mechanism 12, a tire load adjusting mechanism 13, and a slip angle adjusting mechanism 14 as alignment mechanisms for the test tire T. FIG. The alignment mechanism is a mechanism that can adjust the alignment of the test tire T with respect to the simulated road surface 23b by changing the position or orientation of the spindle portion 15 .

The traverse mechanism 11 (driving lane switching mechanism) moves the base plate 102 in the Y-axis direction with respect to the base plate 101, thereby moving the position of the test tire T in the axial direction, thereby bringing the test tire T into contact with the simulated road surface 23b. This is a mechanism for switching between the running lanes 23b1 and 23b2. The traverse mechanism 11 includes a plurality of linear guides 111 that guide the base plate 102 in the axial direction (Y-axis direction) of the rotating drum 22 with respect to the base plate 101, a servomotor 112 that drives the baseplate 102, and a rotary motion of the servomotor 112. is provided with a ball screw 113 (feed screw mechanism) that converts to linear motion in the Y-axis direction. The ball screw 113 has a screw shaft 113a and a nut 113b.

Each linear guide 111 has a rail 111a and one or more carriages 111b that can travel on the rail 111a via rolling elements (not shown). A rail 111 a of the linear guide 111 is attached to the upper surface of the base plate 101 and a carriage 111 b is attached to the lower surface of the base plate 102 . That is, the base plate 101 and the base plate 102 are connected via a plurality of linear guides 111 so as to be slidable in the Y-axis direction.

A servo motor 112 is attached to the base plate 101 with its axis directed in the Y-axis direction. The shaft of the servomotor 112 is coupled with the screw shaft 113a of the ball screw 113, and the nut 113b is attached to the lower surface of the base plate 102. As shown in FIG. By driving the servo motor 112 , the base plate 102 moves in the Y-axis direction with respect to the base plate 101 . As a result, the position of the test tire T relative to the rotating drum 22 is moved in the Y-axis direction, and the running lanes 23b1 and 23b2 of the simulated road surface 23b on which the test tire T is grounded are switched.

As shown in FIG. 5, the servomotor 112 is connected to the central control unit 70 via a servo amplifier 112a. The switching operation of the driving lane by the servomotor 112 is controlled by the central control unit 70 .

FIG. 9 is a rear view showing the upper portion of the tire holding portion 10. FIG. The camber angle adjustment mechanism 12 is a mechanism that adjusts the camber angle of the test tire T by turning the base plate 103 around the Z axis with respect to the base plate 102 . The camber angle adjustment mechanism 12 includes a vertically extending shaft 121, a bearing 122 that rotatably supports the shaft 121, a curved guide 123 that guides the turning of the base plate 103 about the shaft 121, and a shaft that extends in the Y-axis direction. It has a servomotor 124 attached to the base plate 102 and a ball screw 125 (feed screw mechanism) that converts the rotary motion of the servomotor 124 into linear motion in the Y-axis direction.

A shaft 121 is attached to the base plate 103 and a bearing 122 is attached to the base plate 102 . The bearing 122 is provided with a rotary encoder 122a (camber angle detection means) shown in FIG. 5 for detecting the angular position (ie camber angle) of the shaft 121 . In addition, the shaft 121 is arranged directly under the contact surface where the test tire T contacts the rotary drum 22 . Specifically, the center line (rotational axis) of the shaft 121 is a straight line passing through the spindle 152 and the vertical ground plane. The curved guide 123 includes a rail 123a extending in an arc concentric with the shaft 121, and a carriage 123b capable of traveling on the rail 123a via rolling elements (not shown). The rail 123 a is attached to the upper surface of the base plate 102 and the carriage 123 b is attached to the lower surface of the base plate 103 . A screw shaft 125a of the ball screw 125 is coupled to the shaft of the servomotor 124, and a nut 125b is attached to the base plate 103 via a hinge 126 that can swing around the vertical axis. By driving the servo motor 124, the base plate 103 pivots about the axis 121 and the camber angle of the test tire T is changed.

As shown in FIG. 5, the servo motor 124 is connected to the central control section 70 via a servo amplifier 124a. The camber angle adjustment operation by the servomotor 124 is controlled by the central control unit 70 .

The tire load adjustment mechanism 13 moves the test tire T in the radial direction by moving the base plate 104 in the X-axis direction with respect to the base plate 103, and adjusts the vertical load (ground pressure) applied to the test tire T. mechanism. The tire load adjustment mechanism 13 includes a plurality of linear guides 131 that guide the base plate 104 in the radial direction (X-axis direction) of the rotating drum 22 with respect to the base plate 103, a servomotor 132 that drives the baseplate 104, and the servomotor 132. It has a ball screw 133 (feed screw mechanism) that converts rotary motion into linear motion in the X-axis direction.

The linear guide 131 includes a rail 131a extending in the X-axis direction and a carriage 131b capable of traveling on the rail via rolling elements. A rail 131 a of the linear guide 131 is attached to the upper surface of the base plate 103 and a carriage 131 b is attached to the lower surface of the base plate 104 .

A servo motor 132 is attached to the base plate 103 with its axis directed in the X-axis direction. The shaft of the servomotor 132 is coupled to the screw shaft 133a of the ball screw 133, and the nut 133b is attached to the base plate 104. As shown in FIG. By driving the servo motor 132, the base plate 104 moves in the X-axis direction with respect to the base plate 103 together with the nut 133b. As a result, the center distance between the rotating drum 22 and the test tire T changes, and the load on the test tire T changes.

As shown in FIG. 5, the servomotor 132 is connected to the central control section 70 via a servo amplifier 132a. The load adjustment operation of the test tire T by the servomotor 132 is controlled by the central control section 70 .

The slip angle adjusting mechanism 14 rotates the spindle portion 15 about the X-axis with respect to the base plate 104, thereby tilting the rotation axis of the test tire T about the X-axis with respect to the rotation axis of the rotating drum 22. This is a mechanism for adjusting the slip angle of T.

The slip angle adjusting mechanism 14 includes a shaft 141 whose one end is fixed to the spindle case 154 (bearing portion) of the spindle portion 15 and extends in the Y-axis direction, and the shaft 141 around the X-axis (that is, around the axis perpendicular to the ground surface). ), a servomotor 143, and a ball screw 144 (feed screw mechanism). The bearing 142 has a rotary encoder 142a (FIG. 5) that detects the angular position of the shaft 141 (ie, the slip angle of the test tire T). A center line (rotational axis) of the shaft 141 passes through substantially the center of the wheel portion 156 and is arranged perpendicular to the rotation axis of the wheel portion 156 . The servomotor 143 is attached to the base plate 104 via a hinge 143b capable of swinging around the Y-axis with its axis directed substantially in the Z-axis direction. The shaft of the servomotor 143 is coupled with the screw shaft 144a of the ball screw 144. As shown in FIG. In addition, the nut 144b of the ball screw 144 is attached to one end of the spindle case 154 in the X-axis direction (a location away from the center of the shaft 141 in the X-axis direction) via a hinge 146 that can swing about the Y-axis. It is

By driving the servo motor 143 to move the nut 144 b of the ball screw 144 up and down, the spindle case 154 rotates together with the shaft 141 . As a result, the slip angle of the test tire T held by the spindle portion 15 changes.

As shown in FIG. 5, the servo motor 143 is connected to the central control section 70 via a servo amplifier 143a. The adjustment operation of the slip angle by the servomotor 143 is controlled by the central control unit 70 .

The spindle section 15 includes a spindle 152 , a spindle case 154 (bearing section) that rotatably supports the spindle 152 , and a wheel section 156 that is coaxially attached to one end of the spindle 152 . A test tire T is mounted on the wheel portion 156 . The spindle 152 includes a torque sensor 152a that detects the torque applied to the test tire T, and three component forces applied to the test tire T (that is, the force in the X-axis direction [Radial Force; load], the force in the Y-axis direction [Lateral Force; A three-component force sensor 152b (FIG. 5) is provided for detecting a lateral force] and a force in the Z-axis direction [Tractive Force; tangential force]. The spindle case 154 also includes a rotary encoder 154b (FIG. 5) that detects the number of rotations of the spindle (that is, the test tire T). Since piezoelectric elements are used for both the torque sensor 152a and the three-component force sensor 152b, the spindle 152 and the spindle case 154 have high rigidity, which enables highly accurate measurement. The wheel portion 156 also includes an air pressure sensor 156a (FIG. 5) for detecting the air pressure of the test tire T. As shown in FIG.

The tire holding unit 10 is provided with a tire temperature control system 18 (only the air duct 182a is shown in FIG. 2) for adjusting the temperature of the test tire T by blowing cold air or hot air onto the test tire T. As shown in FIG. The temperature of the test tire T (in particular, the temperature of the tread surface) during the test (running) affects the test result (amount of wear). Therefore, it is desirable to keep the temperature of the tread surface of the test tire T within a certain temperature range (for example, 35±5° C.) during the test. Also, in the measurement of the wear amount of the test tire T, which will be described later, the temperature of the test tire T affects the measurement results. In order to accurately measure the amount of wear, it is necessary to adjust the temperature of the test tire T to a predetermined reference temperature (for example, 25° C.) during measurement. Therefore, using the tire temperature control system 18, the temperature of the test tire T is adjusted to a set temperature during testing and wear measurement.

The tire temperature control system 18 ( FIG. 5 ) includes a controller 181 , a spot air conditioner 182 and a temperature sensor 183 . The temperature sensor 183 is a non-contact temperature sensor (radiation thermometer) that measures the temperature of the tread surface of the test tire T, and is arranged to face the tread surface. Based on the measurement result of the temperature sensor 183, the control unit 181 controls the operation of the spot air-conditioning device 182 so as to eliminate the deviation from the set temperature, and blows cold or hot air onto the tread surface of the test tire T. Or blow room temperature air. The preset temperature of the test tire T can be set to different values during testing (during running) and during wear measurement. In addition, different set temperatures can be set according to the type of test tire T. Further, the tire temperature control system 18 may be further provided with a temperature sensor for measuring the room temperature, and the operation of the spot air conditioner 182 may be controlled based on the room temperature and the temperature of the test tire T.

The tire temperature control system 18 of this embodiment is configured to adjust the temperature of the test tire T by blowing hot air or cold air onto the test tire T using the spot air conditioner 182. The tire temperature control system is not limited to this configuration. For example, the temperature of the test tire T may be adjusted by providing a cover (constant room) that surrounds the entire test tire T and adjusting the air temperature inside the cover.

Also, the set temperature at the time of testing may be set according to the climate of the region where the tire is used. Also, tire wear is accelerated by an increase in temperature. Therefore, an accelerated aging test can also be performed by using the tire temperature control system 18 to adjust the temperature of the test tire T during testing to be higher than the temperature of the tire during normal driving.

The tire holding section 10 also includes a two-dimensional laser displacement sensor 17 (hereinafter abbreviated as "displacement sensor 17") used to measure the wear amount of the tread of the test tire T. As shown in FIG. The displacement sensor 17 detects a two-dimensional profile of the tread surface of the test tire T (a cross-sectional shape cut by a plane containing the rotation axis of the tire) using a laser beam (laser light sheet) spread into a belt shape by a cylindrical lens. Non-contact measurement.

As shown in FIG. 5, the displacement sensor 17 is connected to the measuring section 80 and functions together with the measuring section 80 as a wear measuring section. The measurement unit 80 controls the operation of the displacement sensor 17 and calculates the wear amount of the test tire T based on the two-dimensional profile acquired by the displacement sensor 17 .

The two-dimensional profile measurement by the wear measuring unit is performed before and after the tire test (additionally during the test) while the test tire T is stationary. Based on the two-dimensional profile measured before and after (and during) the test, the wear amount of the test tire T caused by the test is calculated. As described above, the measured value of tire wear is affected by the temperature of the tire. It is desirable to conduct the test after the tire as a whole has reached a predetermined reference temperature.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a two-dimensional profile of the tread surface of the test tire T obtained by two-dimensional profile measurement using the wear measuring section. In FIG. 10, the horizontal axis (Y) indicates the position in the width direction of the test tire T, and the vertical axis (H) indicates the position in the height direction of the groove of the test tire T (radial direction of the test tire T). Four grooves G1, G2, G3 and G4 extending in the circumferential direction are formed in the test tire T. As shown in FIG. By image analysis of the two-dimensional profile, the U-shaped concave portion in the two-dimensional profile is associated with each of the grooves G1 to G4.

Neighboring regions L1 and R1, L2 and R2, L3 and R3, and L4 and R4 are set in predetermined ranges on both sides in the width direction (Y-axis direction) of each of the grooves G1 to G4. Hereinafter, the n-th groove is denoted by Gn, and the neighboring regions of the trench Gn are denoted by Ln and Rn. A neighboring region on the negative side of the horizontal axis (left side in FIG. 10) of the groove Gn is called a neighboring region Ln, and a neighboring region of the groove Gn on the positive side of the horizontal axis (right side in FIG. 10) is called a neighboring region Rn. The neighboring region Ln (Rn) is set, for example, as a region extending from the left end (right end) of the groove Gn to half the width of the groove Gn.

The depth Dn of the groove Gn is calculated, for example, as the difference between the average value of the height H in the neighboring regions Ln and Rn and the average value of the height H in the groove Gn. Also, the wear amount Wn of each groove Gn before and after the test is calculated as the difference in the depth Dn of the groove Gn before and after the test. Also, an average wear amount W of the test tire T is calculated as an average value of the wear amounts W1 to W4.

In addition to (or instead of) the groove depth Dn described above, a minimum groove depth Dn _min may be calculated. The minimum groove depth Dn _min of the groove Gn is, for example, the average value of the minimum value of the height H in the neighboring region Ln and the minimum value of the height H in the neighboring region Rn, and the maximum value of the height H in the groove Gn. calculated as the difference between In this case, the minimum groove depth Dn _min may be used instead of the groove depth Dn to calculate the wear amount Wn and the average wear amount W.

The method of calculating the amount of wear Wn and the average amount of wear W is not limited to those exemplified above, and other methods may be used. For example, in the above example, the depth Dn of the groove Gn and the minimum groove depth Dn _min are calculated using the heights H of both the neighboring regions Ln and Rn. The height H of one (for example, the one closer to the center in the width direction of the test tire T) may be used to calculate the depth Dn of the groove Gn and the like. In addition, by the method of least squares, etc., for the grooves G1 to G4 and the parts other than the grooves G1 to G4, approximate curves (for example, quadratic curves) of the two-dimensional profiles are obtained, and the average distance of both approximate curves before and after the test The average wear amount W may be calculated as the difference between .

In addition to the wear amount Wn and the average wear amount W of each groove Gn, the wear measurement unit 17 measures the wear amount W _L per unit traveling distance (for example, 1 km) and the wear amount W per unit traveling time (for example, one hour). Calculate and display _T.

The tire holding unit 10 includes a lubricant spraying device 16 (powder spraying device) that sprays a lubricant (spreading object) on the tread surface of the test tire T and the simulated road surface 23 b of the rotating drum 22 . The lubricant spraying device 16 sprays a mixture of lubricant dispersed in the air from the running direction front (upper side in FIG. 1) of the contact portion between the test tire T and the simulated road surface 23b. As a result, malfunctions and failures caused by rubber powder generated by wear of the test tire T adhering to each part of the tire testing apparatus 1 are prevented. In addition, the spread of the lubricant reduces the influence of the rubber powder adhering to the test tire T, the simulated road surface 23b, etc., on the test results, and improves the test accuracy.

Nonflammable powder such as talc (hydrated magnesium silicate) is used as the lubricant. This prevents dust explosions, eliminates the need for safety measures against dust explosions such as explosion-proof equipment, and makes it possible to greatly reduce initial costs and running costs.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of the lubricant distribution device 16. As shown in FIG. The lubricant spraying device 16 includes a hopper 161 (storage unit) in which the lubricant is stored, a stirrer 162 that agitates the inside of the hopper 161, a drive unit 163 that drives the stirrer 162 to rotate, and a lubricant that is supplied quantitatively. A fixed quantity conveying portion 164 for conveying, an ejector 166 for sucking the lubricant, mixing it with air and ejecting it, a pipeline 165 for guiding the lubricant from the fixed quantity conveying portion 164 to the ejector 166, and the lubricant from the ejector 166 to the spraying position. It has a conduit 167 for guiding dispersed air and a trumpet 168 attached to the tip of the conduit 167 .

The stirrer 162 includes a rod 162a extending vertically, three pairs of branches 162b extending vertically from the side surface of the rod 162a toward the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 in the radial direction, and the tips of the pairs of branches 162b. It has three shoe holding portions 162c (slider holding portions) attached thereto, and three shoes 162d (sliders) held by the shoe mounting portions 162c. The rod 162 a is arranged concentrically with the cylindrical inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 , and one end thereof is connected to the driving portion 163 . Each shoe 162d is arranged so that the tip thereof contacts the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161, and turns along the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 while scraping off the lubricant adhering to the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161. In this embodiment, a brush made of, for example, conductive (or antistatic) resin is used as the shoe 162d. During operation of the tire testing apparatus 1 , the lubricant in the hopper 161 is constantly stirred by the stirrer 162 . As a result, it is possible to prevent fluctuations in the supply amount of the lubricant and interruption of the supply due to aggregation and clogging of the lubricant in the hopper 161 . Since the lubricant adheres to the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 and tends to become a starting point of agglomeration, clogging of the lubricant is effectively prevented by rubbing the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 with the tip of the shoe 162d. Stable supply becomes possible.

Although a brush is used as the shoe 162d in this embodiment, a member other than the brush (for example, a sponge or sheet having rubber elasticity) may be used as the shoe 162d. Due to the elasticity of the shoe 162d, the shoe 162d is pressed against the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 with an appropriate force, and the lubricant adhered to the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 is rubbed off. Also, if the shoe 162d does not have appropriate elasticity, the shoe attachment portion 162c and the branch portion 162b may be provided with elasticity. For example, by using a plate spring for the branch portion 162b, the shoe 162d can be pressed against the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 by the elastic force of the plate spring. In addition, by using the resin or rubber shoe 162d, the inner peripheral surface of the hopper 161 is prevented from being scratched or worn due to sliding of the shoe 162d.

Also, by using the shoe 162d made of a conductive material (for example, a synthetic resin in which carbon black is kneaded), accumulation of lubricant on the surface of the shoe 162d due to static electricity is prevented.

The drive unit 163 includes a motor 163m, a driver 163md (FIG. 5) that supplies a drive current to the motor 163m, and a reducer 163g that reduces the rotational speed of the output of the motor 163m.

Although the axes of the hopper 161 and stirrer 162 are oriented vertically in this embodiment, they may be oriented vertically (that is, the axes may be tilted with respect to the vertical).

The fixed-quantity conveying unit 164 includes a cylindrical case 164a having a cylindrical hollow portion, a substantially cylindrical screw 164b concentrically accommodated in the hollow portion of the case 164a, and a driving unit 164c for rotating the screw 164b. ing. The drive unit 164c has a servo motor 164cm and a servo amplifier 164cma that supplies drive current to the servo motor 164cm. Instead of the servo motor 164 cm, other types of motors capable of controlling the number of revolutions may be used.

The screw 164b has a substantially cylindrical main body portion 164b1 with a spiral groove formed on its outer periphery, and a shaft portion 164b2 that is thinner than the main body portion 164b1 and extends axially from both axial ends of the main body portion 164b1. Bearing holes 164a1 rotatably fitted to the shaft portions 164b2 are formed at both ends of the case 164a in the axial direction. One of the shaft portions 164b2 is connected to the shaft of the driving portion 164c.

Openings are provided at both ends in the axial direction of the case 164a. An inlet 164a2, which is one of the openings, is formed on the upper surface at one end of the case 164a. The outlet 164a3, which is the other opening, is formed on the lower surface of the case 164a on the other end side. A discharge port of the hopper 161 is connected to the inlet 164a2, and a vertically extending straight pipe 164d is connected to the outlet 164a3.

A single spiral groove is formed on the outer circumference of the screw 164b. The spiral groove has a semicircular cross section. In addition, although the pitch of the spiral grooves is constant in this embodiment, the pitch may be unequal. Also, a plurality of spiral grooves (multiple spiral structure) may be formed in the screw 164b. The outer diameter of the main body portion 164b1 of the screw 164b is slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the hollow portion of the case 164a. If the gap between the outer peripheral surface of the screw 164b and the inner peripheral surface of the case is narrow, the lubricant will clog the gap and the frictional resistance will increase.

As the screw 164b rotates, the lubricant moves from the inlet 164a2 toward the outlet 164a3 in the hollow portion of the case 164a and is discharged from the straight pipe 164d. Since the amount of lubricant conveyed per rotation of the screw 164b is constant, rotating the screw 164b at a constant speed makes it possible to continuously supply the lubricant at a constant speed. Also, by changing the rotation speed of the screw 164b, it is possible to adjust the supply speed of the lubricant.

The ejector 166 operates with compressed air supplied from the pipe 166a as a drive source, and ejects the compressed air at high speed from the built-in nozzle toward the discharge side, thereby reducing the suction port connected to the pipe 165. The pressure is applied to suck the lubricant from the suction port, and the air in which the lubricant is dispersed is ejected from the discharge port to which the pipe line 167 is connected.

The inlet of the pipe line 165 is vertically opposed to the outlet of the straight pipe 164d of the fixed-quantity conveying unit 164 with a gap G interposed therebetween. Due to the negative pressure generated by the ejector 166 , air flows into the conduit 165 through the gap G. The lubricant dropped from the outlet of the straight pipe 164d is introduced into the pipe line 165 by the air flowing from the gap G.

Further, the tip of the conduit 167 (trumpet 168) is arranged directly above the contact portion between the test tire T and the simulated road surface 23b. The air containing the lubricant ejected from the ejector 166 passes through the conduit 167 and is ejected from the trumpet 168 toward the ground. Further, as shown in FIG. 11, the test tire T and the rotating drum 22 are rotationally driven in a direction in which the contact portion moves downward. That is, the lubricant is jetted from the front in the running direction toward the ground contact portion.

By using the lubricant spraying device 16 described above to spray the lubricant in front of the contact portion between the test tire T and the simulated road surface 23b, the rubber shavings generated by the wear of the test tire T disperse into the test tire T and the tire. Adhesion to the testing apparatus 1 is prevented, and deterioration of test accuracy and failure of the tire testing apparatus 1 due to adhesion of rubber scraps are prevented.

As shown in FIG. 5, the motor 163m of the driving section 163 and the servomotor 164cm of the fixed quantity conveying section 164 of the lubricant spraying device 16 are connected to the central control section . The operation of the lubricant applicator 16 is controlled by a central controller 70 .

As shown in FIG. 5, the interface unit 90 of the control system 1a includes, for example, a user interface for inputting and outputting data with a user, a network interface for connecting to various networks such as a LAN (Local Area Network), It has one or more of various communication interfaces such as USB (Universal Serial Bus) and GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus) for connecting with external devices. The user interface includes, for example, various operation switches, displays, various display devices such as LCD (liquid crystal display), various pointing devices such as mice and touch pads, touch screens, video cameras, printers, scanners, buzzers, speakers, etc. , microphone, memory card reader/writer, etc.

The displacement sensor 17, rotary encoders 122a, 142a, 154b and 241, torque sensor 152a, 3-component force sensor 152b, air pressure sensor 156a and temperature sensor 183 are connected to the measurement unit 80. FIG. Based on the signals from the sensors, the measurement unit 80 measures the torque applied to the test tire T, the load (Radial Force), the tangential force (Tractive Force) and the lateral force (Lateral Force), the rotation speed of the test tire T, the camber angle, The slip angle, the temperature and air pressure of the tread surface, the rotational speed of the rotary drum 22 and the road surface speed (peripheral speed of the rotary drum 22) are measured, and these measured values are transmitted to the central control unit 70. The road surface speed is calculated from the rotational speed of the rotary drum 22 measured by the rotary encoder 241 .

The central control unit 70 displays the measured value acquired from the measuring unit 80 on the display device according to the setting, and stores the measured value in the nonvolatile memory 71 together with the measurement time.

Servo motors 52, 112, 124, 132, 143 and 164cm are connected to the central control unit 70 via servo amplifiers 52a, 112a, 124a, 132a, 143a and 164cma, respectively. Also, motors 32 and 163m are connected to the central control unit 70 via an inverter circuit 32a and a driver 163md, respectively. Furthermore, a spot air conditioner 182 and a temperature sensor 183 are connected to the central control unit 70 via a control unit 181 of the tire temperature control system 18 .

In the test using the tire testing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, a tire having a design that serves as a reference in advance (hereinafter referred to as a "reference tire") is mounted on an actual vehicle and the wear state is examined when the tire is run. Then, the test conditions are adjusted so that the same wear condition as in the actual running test is reproduced in the bench test by the tire test device 1, and tires of various designs are tested under the adjusted test conditions (referred to as "adjusted test conditions"). is tested. The reference tire is selected from tires relatively similar in design to the tire to be tested. For example, a reference tire is set for each of a passenger car tire and a bus/truck tire.

According to the embodiment of the present invention described above, since the electric motor is used without using the hydraulic system, it is possible to greatly reduce the amount of electricity used as compared with the conventional test apparatus.

Moreover, since the power consumption is small, the tire testing apparatus 1 can be stably operated even when the power supply is restricted due to a large-scale disaster or the like.

Also, since no hydraulic system is used, there is no problem of environmental pollution caused by hydraulic oil.

In addition, since rubber tires degrade when they come into contact with hydraulic fluid, it is difficult to perform accurate tests in a test environment contaminated with hydraulic fluid. If the tire testing apparatus 1 of this embodiment is used, the test tire T will not be contaminated with hydraulic oil, so more accurate testing can be performed.

In addition, in the present embodiment, the torque generating unit 50 (torque generating device) is an ultra-low-inertia high-output AC having a moment of inertia of the rotating portion of 0.01 kg·m ² or less and a rated output of 22 kW (7 kW to 37 kW). By using a servo motor, it is possible to generate sudden torque fluctuations, and it is possible to accurately reproduce torque changes with complex waveforms.

In addition, in the conventional power circulation system, the torque is first applied to the power circulation circuit, and the rotational drive is started when the torque is applied, so the torque cannot be changed during the test. , could only apply a constant torque. In the tire testing apparatus 1 of this embodiment, by adopting a configuration in which a torque generator equipped with an ultra-low-inertia high-output AC servomotor is incorporated into a power circulation circuit, a high-speed (high-frequency) and complex It is possible to give a large amount of torque fluctuation to the test piece, and it is possible to accurately simulate tests under severe and complicated conditions such as sudden acceleration and deceleration during high-speed running and ABS brake tests.

In addition, in the conventional configuration using a single drive motor, the drive motor is required to rotate at high speed and large torque, so a large capacity motor of 600 kW or more is required even for testing passenger car tires. . However, by adopting the torque generating device of the present embodiment, the role of each motor is divided into low-speed, large-torque driving and high-speed, low-torque driving, so the capacity of the servo motor 52 of the torque generating section 50 is sufficient at 22 kW. Since the capacity of the motor 32 of the rotation drive unit 30 is also sufficient with 37 kW, the total capacity is sufficient with 60 kW, and it is possible to reduce the necessary electricity consumption to about 1/10. It should be noted that the test equipment suitable for testing truck and bus tires reduces the amount of electricity used to about 1/13. In addition, when using a hydraulic motor, electricity is used to control the temperature of the hydraulic oil even when it is not in operation. It can be reduced to 15 or so.

Also, by using a low-capacity motor, it is possible to reduce the manufacturing cost and also to make the device smaller.

Moreover, in the tire testing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, by forming the simulated road surface 23b using a new composite material, the durability of the simulated road surface 23b is improved and the running cost can be reduced. Further, if the simulated road surface 23b of this embodiment is used, it becomes possible to perform tests that accurately simulate various road surfaces by changing aggregates and binders.

(Second embodiment)
Next, a second embodiment of the invention will be described. 12 and 13 are a plan view and a front view, respectively, of a tire testing device 1000 according to a second embodiment of the invention. For convenience of explanation, each figure shows a part of the tire testing apparatus 1000 in cross section. In addition, the same or corresponding reference numerals are given to components that are common or correspond to those of the first embodiment, and overlapping descriptions are omitted.

The tire testing apparatus 1000 of this embodiment is configured so that a single testing apparatus can test passenger car tires and bus/truck tires.

The tire testing apparatus 1000 has two power circulation circuits (power circulation circuit A and power circulation circuit B) that share a part of the relay section 1040 (the gearbox 1042 and the shaft 1049) and the road surface section 1020 (rotating drum 1022). It is equipped so that two test tires T1 and T2 can be tested at the same time.

Also, in this embodiment, the rotary drive unit 1030 is installed on the frame 1020F of the road surface portion 1020, and the power of the motor 1032 is applied to the drive pulley 1034 coupled to the shaft of the motor 1032, the V-belt 1068, and the shaft of the rotary drum 1022. It is configured to be transmitted to each power circulation circuit A, B via a driven pulley 1025 and a rotating drum 1022 coupled to 1022a.

Two pairs of drive pulleys 1044A and 1044B and driven pulleys 1048A and 1048B are provided in the relay portions 1040A and 1040B, respectively. One set has a reduction ratio suitable for testing passenger car tires, and the other set has a reduction ratio suitable for testing bus and truck tires. V-belts 1066A and 1066B are wound around pulley pairs for passenger car tires when testing passenger car tires, and around pulley pairs for bus truck tires when testing bus truck tires. Only by changing the V-belts 1066A and 1066B, it is possible to change the speed reduction ratio suitable for various tires.

The relay section 1040 has one first gear 1042a and two second gears 1042b. Through holes are provided in the centers of the first gear 1042a and the second gear 1042b, respectively. Shafts 1041A and 1041B having driven pulleys 1048A and 1048B attached to their ends are passed through the through holes in a non-contact manner. The other ends of the shafts 1041A, 1041B are connected to the shafts 1051A, 1051B of the torque generating portions 1050A, 1050B. Also, each second gear 1042b is coupled to the outer cylinder 1051 of the torque generating portions 1050A and 1050B.

The above is the description of one embodiment of the present invention. Embodiments of the present invention are not limited to those described above, and various modifications are possible. For example, the embodiments of the present application also include configurations in which configurations such as embodiments exemplified in this specification and/or configurations such as embodiments that are obvious to those skilled in the art from the descriptions in this specification are combined as appropriate. .

In the above-described embodiment, the position of the rotation axis of the first gear 42a of the relay section 40 is configured to be horizontally movable. good. In this case, the second gear 42b and the drive pulley 44 are connected by, for example, a drive shaft 62 having a universal joint so as to allow movement of the second gear 42b.

Although a V-belt is used as the second connecting means in the above embodiment, a flat belt, toothed belt, or other belt may be used as the second connecting means. Alternatively, a chain, wire, or other wrap-around joint may be used as the second connecting means. In addition, in the above-described first embodiment, the relay portion 40 and the torque generating portion 50 are connected by one V-belt, but they may be connected by a plurality of second connecting means connected in parallel or in series. Also, when connecting a plurality of second connecting means in series, different types of second connecting means may be used in combination.

The embodiments of the invention described above are summarized below.

In a tire testing device that conducts a simulation test as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-91440, rubber shavings generated by tire wear adhere to various parts of the tire testing device, which can cause failure of the tire testing device. .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to prevent rubber shavings generated by a tire wear test from adhering to a tire testing device or a test tire, thereby preventing failure of the tire testing device. and

According to one embodiment of the present invention, a grounding step of grounding a test tire on a simulated road surface provided on the outer circumference of a rotating drum; a rotating step of rotating the rotating drum and the test tire grounded on the simulated road surface; and a powder sprinkling step of sprinkling powder on at least one outer peripheral surface of the test tire to make it difficult for rubber shavings generated by abrasion of the test tire to adhere.

In the above tire test method, the powder spraying step includes a conveying step of conveying the powder at a constant rate, a dispersing step of dispersing the conveyed powder in gas, and a spraying step of spraying the gas in which the powder is dispersed onto the outer peripheral surface. , may be included.

In the tire testing method described above, in the spraying step, the powder-dispersed gas may be sprayed from the front in the running direction toward the contact portion between the simulated road surface and the test tire.

In the tire testing method described above, in the conveying step, the powder may be conveyed at a constant rate by rotating the screw, which is the conveying means, at a predetermined speed.

In the above tire testing method, the dispersing step includes a compressed gas supply step of supplying compressed gas to the ejector, a step of sucking the powder by the negative pressure generated by the ejector, and ejecting the powder dispersed in the gas from the ejector. and a jetting step.

In the tire testing method described above, the dispersing step may include an guiding step of guiding the gas ejected from the ejector to a position where it is to be sprayed through a pipeline, and the powder may be more uniformly dispersed in the gas in the guiding step.

In the tire testing method described above, the spraying step may be configured to spray the gas in which the powder is dispersed from a trumpet.

In the above tire test method, the powder may contain talc.

Further, according to another embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a conveying unit for quantitatively conveying the object to be dispersed, and the object to be dispersed conveyed by the conveying unit is sucked and the gas in which the object to be dispersed is dispersed is ejected. and an ejector for causing the sparging device.

According to this configuration, a spraying device capable of spraying the object to be sprayed quantitatively (for example, continuously at a constant amount per unit time) is provided.

In the spraying device described above, the conveying section may include a screw, a cylindrical case that accommodates the screw, and a driving section that rotates the screw at a predetermined number of revolutions.

In the spraying device described above, the screw may be a substantially cylindrical member having a spiral groove formed on its outer peripheral surface.

The above spraying device has a hopper in which the material to be sprayed is stored, the inlet of the case opens upward at one end in the axial direction of the case, and the outlet of the hopper formed at the bottom of the hopper is connected to the inlet. may be configured.

In the spraying device, the hopper includes a stirrer for stirring the object to be sprayed in the hopper, the hopper has a cylindrical inner peripheral surface, and the stirrer rotates while being in contact with the inner peripheral surface of the hopper. It is good also as a structure which has a mover.

In the spraying device, the stirrer includes a rod that is arranged concentrically with the inner peripheral surface of the hopper and rotates around the axis of the inner peripheral surface, and a branch that extends from the side surface of the rod toward the inner peripheral surface of the hopper. , and a slider holder that holds the slider and is attached to the branch.

The spraying device may have a plurality of sliders arranged at different positions in the axial direction of the hopper.

In the spraying device described above, two sliders that are adjacent in the axial direction of the hopper may be arranged at different positions in the turning direction.

In the spraying device described above, the first pipe line for guiding the object to be sprayed transported by the transporting section to the ejector is provided. may be connected to an inlet of a straight pipe extending downward, and the outlet of the straight pipe and the inlet of the first pipeline may be vertically opposed to each other with a gap therebetween.

Further, according to still another embodiment of the present invention, a rotating drum provided with a simulated road surface on its outer peripheral surface, a tire holding section that rotatably retains a test tire in contact with the simulated road surface, and a rotating drum and a drive unit that rotates the tire holding unit, and the above-described spraying device that sprays powder that makes it difficult for rubber shavings generated by wear of the test tire to adhere to the outer peripheral surface of at least one of the rotating drum and the test tire. , a tire testing apparatus is provided.

Further, according to still another embodiment of the present invention, a rotating drum provided with a simulated road surface on its outer periphery, a tire holding section that rotatably holds a test tire in contact with the simulated road surface, and Equipped with a torque generating section that generates a torque to be applied, and a rotation driving section that includes a motor that is an electric motor that rotationally drives a rotating drum, and the torque generating section is coaxially attached to a case that is rotatably supported. and a servomotor, which is an electric motor, and a rotary drive section that rotationally drives the case of the torque generating section.

According to this configuration, since a hydraulic system is not used, it is possible to prevent environmental pollution caused by hydraulic oil, and it is possible to reduce energy consumption compared to conventional devices using hydraulic pressure. In addition, by introducing a torque generator (torque generator), it becomes possible to divide the two roles of rotational drive and torque generation into two motors, so it is possible to use a small motor with a low capacity. It becomes possible, and further energy saving and space saving become possible.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the simulated road surface may be formed by a plurality of simulated road surface units that can be attached to and detached from the outer circumference of the rotating drum.

According to this configuration, it becomes possible to manufacture the simulated road surface unit as a prefabricated unit, and to improve production efficiency.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the simulated road surface unit may include a frame that can be attached to and detached from the outer periphery of the rotating drum, and a simulated road surface body that can be attached to and detached from the surface of the frame.

According to this configuration, replacement of the simulated road surface member, which is a consumable item, is facilitated. In addition, it becomes possible to increase variations of the simulated road surface body at low cost.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the simulated road surface may be made of a material containing an aggregate and a binder that binds the aggregate.

In the above tire testing device, the aggregate comprises ceramic pieces,
The binder may contain a curable resin.

In the above tire testing apparatus, the simulated road surface may be made of the same material (or different material) as the actual road surface.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the simulated road surface may have a plurality of running lanes arranged in the axial direction of the rotating drum.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the plurality of running lanes may be made of the same material (or different materials).

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the tire holding section may include a travel lane switching mechanism capable of switching the travel lane in which the rotating drum travels by moving the rotating drum in the axial direction.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, a relay section for relaying transmission of power from the rotational drive section to the torque generation section, a first connection means for connecting the rotational drive section and the relay section, and a relay section and the torque generation section. and a second connection means for connecting the second connection means includes a winding transmission mechanism, and the winding transmission mechanism includes a passive pulley coaxially attached to the case of the torque generating part. good too.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the rotary drive section includes a power coupling section, the power coupling section having an input shaft to which a motor is connected, one end connected to the first coupling means, and the other end connected to the shaft of the rotating drum. and an output shaft to which is connected.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the relay portion includes a first gear connected to the first connecting means, a second gear meshed with the first gear and connected to the second connecting means, and one of the first gear and the second gear is configured to be movable in the direction of the distance from the other so that the distance between the rotation axes of the first gear and the second gear can be changed. and one of the first connecting means and the second connecting means, which is connected to one of the gears, includes a drive shaft having universal joints at both ends and having a variable length. good too.

In the tire testing device described above, the torque generating section has a first shaft connected to the shaft of the servomotor, and the case has a cylindrical shape with an opening formed at one end for allowing the first shaft to pass through, The servomotor and one end portion of the first shaft may be accommodated in the case, and the other end portion of the first shaft may be exposed to the outside of the case through the opening.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the tire holding section includes a spindle section that rotatably holds the test tire, and an alignment mechanism that can adjust the alignment of the test tire with respect to the simulated road surface by changing the position or orientation of the spindle section. , the spindle portion may include a wheel portion on which a tire is mounted, and a spindle to which the wheel portion is coaxially attached to one end and rotatably supported.

The tire testing apparatus described above may include third connecting means for connecting the first shaft of the torque generating section and the spindle, and the third connecting means may include a constant velocity joint.

In the above-mentioned tire testing device, the tire holding part rotates the spindle case that rotatably supports the spindle, and the spindle case that rotates around an axis that is perpendicular to the ground contact surface where the test tire contacts the simulated road surface and passes through the center of the wheel part. and a camber angle adjustment mechanism capable of adjusting the camber angle of the test tire by rotating the spindle case around an axis that passes through the contact patch and is perpendicular to the spindle. and a tire load adjusting mechanism capable of adjusting the vertical load of the test tire by moving the spindle case in a direction perpendicular to the ground contact surface.

The above-mentioned tire testing apparatus may be configured to include the above-mentioned spraying device for spraying a powder that makes it difficult for rubber crumbs generated by abrasion of the test tire to adhere to the outer periphery of at least one of the rotating drum and the test tire.

According to one embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to prevent rubber shavings generated by a tire test from adhering to a tire testing device or a test tire, thereby preventing failure of the tire testing device.

An object of one aspect of the present invention is to provide a tire testing apparatus capable of applying torque fluctuations to a test piece.

According to one aspect of the present invention, a rotating drum provided with a simulated road surface on its outer periphery, a rotary drive unit including a first electric motor for rotating the rotating drum, and a test tire in contact with the simulated road surface. A rotatably holding tire holding portion, a torque generating portion that generates torque that applies braking force or driving force to the test tire, and a relay portion that relays power transmission from the rotational driving portion to the torque generating portion, The torque generating section includes a case rotatably supported and a second electric motor attached to the case, the rotary driving section rotationally drives the case of the torque generating section, and the relay section is coupled to the rotating drum. and a gearbox connecting the shaft and the case of the torque generator, wherein the shaft and the torque generator are arranged side by side.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the gear box may include a first gear coupled to the shaft and a second gear coupled to the case of the torque generating section and meshing with the first gear.

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the test tire may be connected to the shaft of the second electric motor, and the rotating drum, the relay section, and the torque generating section may be annularly connected via the test tire to form a power circulation circuit. .

According to another aspect of the present invention, a rotating drum provided with a simulated road surface on its outer periphery, a rotary drive unit including a first electric motor for rotating the rotating drum, and a test tire grounded on the simulated road surface a pair of tire holders that rotatably hold the test tire in a state, a pair of torque generators that generate torque to apply braking force or driving force to each test tire, and relay power transmission from the rotation drive unit to each torque generator and a relay portion, wherein the torque generating portion includes a case rotatably supported and a second electric motor attached to the case, the rotation driving portion rotationally drives the case of the torque generating portion, Provided is a tire testing device in which a relay unit includes a shaft connected to a rotating drum and a gear box connecting the shaft and a case of each torque generation unit, and the shaft and a pair of torque generation units are arranged side by side. be done.

In the above tire testing apparatus, the gear box may include a first gear coupled to the shaft, and a pair of second gears coupled to the case of each torque generating section and meshing with the first gear. .

In the tire testing apparatus described above, the test tire is connected to the corresponding shaft of the second electric motor, and the rotating drum, the relay section, and each torque generating section are annularly connected via the corresponding test tire to form a power circulation circuit. It is good also as the composition which carried out.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tire testing apparatus capable of applying torque fluctuations to a test piece.

Claims (36)

A grounding step for grounding the test tire on a simulated road surface provided on the outer circumference of the rotating drum;
a rotating step of rotating the rotating drum and the test tire in contact with the simulated road surface;
a powder spraying step of spraying a powder that makes it difficult for rubber shavings generated by wear of the test tire to adhere to the outer peripheral surface of at least one of the rotating drum and the test tire;
including,
Tire test method. The powder sprinkling step comprises:
a conveying step of conveying the powder at a constant speed;
a dispersing step of dispersing the conveyed powder in a gas;
a spraying step of spraying the gas in which the powder is dispersed onto the outer peripheral surface;
including,
The tire testing method of claim 1. In the spraying step,
The gas in which the powder is dispersed is blown from the front in the running direction toward the ground contact portion between the simulated road surface and the test tire.
The tire testing method according to claim 2. In the conveying step,
Conveying the powder at a constant rate by rotating the screw, which is a conveying means, at a predetermined speed;
The tire testing method according to claim 2 or 3. The dispersing step comprises:
a compressed gas supplying step of supplying compressed gas to the ejector;
sucking the powder with negative pressure generated by the ejector;
an ejection step of ejecting the powder dispersed in the gas from the ejector;
including,
A tire testing method according to any one of claims 2 to 4. The dispersing step comprises:
a guiding step of guiding the gas ejected from the ejector to a position where the gas is sprayed through a pipeline;
in the inducing step, the powder is more uniformly dispersed in the gas;
A tire testing method according to claim 5. The spraying step includes
Blowing the gas in which the powder is dispersed from a trumpet,
A tire testing method according to any one of claims 2 to 6. wherein said powder comprises talc;
A tire testing method according to any one of claims 1 to 7. a conveying unit for quantitatively conveying the object to be sprayed;
an ejector that sucks the object to be dispersed transported by the transport unit and ejects the gas in which the object to be dispersed is dispersed;
A spraying device with The transport section is
a screw;
a cylindrical case that accommodates the screw;
A drive unit that rotates the screw at a predetermined number of revolutions,
A spreading device according to claim 9 . The screw is a substantially cylindrical member having a spiral groove formed on its outer peripheral surface,
11. Distributing device according to claim 10. Equipped with a hopper in which the material to be spread is stored,
an inlet of the case opens upward at one end in the axial direction of the case;
A discharge port of the hopper formed at the bottom of the hopper is connected to the inlet,
A spreading device according to claim 10 or claim 11. Equipped with a stirrer for stirring the object to be sprayed in the hopper,
The hopper has a cylindrical inner peripheral surface,
The stirrer has a slider that turns while being in contact with the inner peripheral surface of the hopper,
13. A spreading device according to claim 12. The stirrer is
a rod arranged concentrically with the inner peripheral surface of the hopper and rotating about the axis of the inner peripheral surface;
a branch extending from the side surface of the rod toward the inner peripheral surface of the hopper;
a slider holder that holds the slider and is attached to the branch,
14. A spreading device according to claim 13. comprising a plurality of said sliders,
The plurality of sliders are arranged at different positions in the axial direction of the hopper,
15. A spreading device according to claim 13 or claim 14. Two sliders adjacent in the axial direction of the hopper are arranged at different positions in the turning direction,
16. A spreading device according to claim 15. comprising a first pipeline that guides the object to be sprayed transported by the transport unit to the ejector;
The outlet of the case opens downward at the other axial end side of the case of the conveying unit,
An inlet of a straight pipe extending downward is connected to the outlet of the case,
The outlet of the straight pipe and the inlet of the first pipeline are arranged vertically facing each other with a gap therebetween,
17. A spreading device according to any one of claims 12-16. a rotating drum having a simulated road surface on its outer periphery;
a tire holding section that rotatably holds the test tire in contact with the simulated road surface;
a drive unit that rotates the rotating drum and the tire holding unit;
18. The dispersing device according to any one of claims 9 to 17, wherein the outer peripheral surface of at least one of the rotating drum and the test tire is sprayed with a powder that makes it difficult for rubber shavings generated by wear of the test tire to adhere. ,
with
tire testing equipment. a rotating drum having a simulated road surface on its outer periphery;
a tire holding section that rotatably holds the test tire in contact with the simulated road surface;
a torque generator that generates torque to be applied to the test tire;
a rotary drive unit including a motor that is an electric motor for rotating the rotating drum;
with
The torque generating section is
a rotatably supported case;
a servomotor, which is an electric motor coaxially attached to the case,
A rotary drive unit rotates the case of the torque generator,
tire testing equipment. The simulated road surface is formed by a plurality of simulated road surface units that can be attached to and detached from the outer periphery of the rotating drum,
20. The tire testing device of claim 19. The simulated road surface unit
a frame detachable from the outer periphery of the rotating drum;
a simulated road surface body that can be attached to and detached from the surface of the frame,
21. The tire testing device of claim 20. wherein the simulated road surface is formed of a material containing aggregate and a binder that binds the aggregate;
22. A tire testing device according to any one of claims 19-21. The aggregate comprises ceramic pieces,
wherein the binder comprises a curable resin;
23. The tire testing device of claim 22. The simulated road surface is made of the same material as the actual road surface,
24. A tire testing device according to any one of claims 19-23. The simulated road surface is formed of a material different from the actual road surface,
24. A tire testing device according to any one of claims 19-23. The simulated road surface has a plurality of running lanes aligned in the axial direction of the rotating drum,
26. A tire testing device according to any one of claims 19-25. The plurality of travel lanes are made of different materials,
27. A tire testing device according to claim 26. The tire holding portion is
A running lane switching mechanism capable of switching the running lane in which the rotating drum runs by moving the rotating drum in the axial direction,
A tire testing device according to claim 26 or claim 27. a relay unit that relays transmission of power from the rotation drive unit to the torque generation unit;
a first connection means for connecting the rotational drive portion and the relay portion;
a second connecting means for connecting the relay portion and the torque generating portion;
with
the second connecting means includes a winding transmission mechanism,
The winding transmission mechanism includes a passive pulley coaxially attached to the case of the torque generating unit,
29. A tire testing device according to any one of claims 19-28. the rotary drive comprises a power coupling;
The power coupling portion
an input shaft to which the motor is connected;
an output shaft having one end connected to the first connecting means and the other end connected to the shaft of the rotating drum,
30. A tire testing device according to claim 29. The relay unit
a first gear to which the first coupling means is connected;
a second gear that meshes with the first gear and is connected to the second connecting means;
Either one of the first gear and the second gear is movable in the distance direction from the other so that the distance between the rotation axes of the first gear and the second gear can be changed. configured,
Of the first connecting means and the second connecting means, the one connected to the one gear includes a drive shaft having universal joints at both ends and having a variable length,
31. A tire testing device according to claim 29 or claim 30. wherein the torque generator comprises a first shaft coupled to the shaft of the servomotor;
the case has a cylindrical shape with an opening formed at one end for passing the first shaft;
the servomotor and the portion on one end side of the first shaft are accommodated in the case;
a portion on the other end side of the first shaft is exposed to the outside of the case from the opening;
32. A tire testing device as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 31. a spindle portion in which the tire holding portion rotatably holds the test tire;
an alignment mechanism capable of adjusting the alignment of the test tire with respect to the simulated road surface by changing the position or orientation of the spindle;
with
The spindle part
a wheel portion on which the tire is mounted;
a spindle rotatably supported with the wheel portion coaxially attached to one end;
33. A tire testing device as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 32. A third connecting means for connecting the first shaft of the torque generating portion and the spindle,
wherein the third connecting means comprises a constant velocity joint;
34. A tire testing device as claimed in claim 33 reciting claim 32. a spindle case in which the tire holding portion rotatably supports the spindle;
a slip angle adjusting mechanism capable of adjusting the slip angle of the test tire by rotating the spindle case around an axis that is perpendicular to the ground contact surface of the test tire on the simulated road surface and passes through the center of the wheel unit;
a camber angle adjustment mechanism capable of adjusting the camber angle of the test tire by rotating the spindle case around an axis that passes through the ground contact surface and is perpendicular to the spindle;
a tire load adjustment mechanism capable of adjusting the vertical load of the test tire by moving the spindle case in a direction perpendicular to the ground contact surface;
with
35. A tire testing device according to claim 33 or claim 34. 18. The spraying device according to any one of claims 9 to 17, wherein the outer circumference of at least one of the rotating drum and the test tire is sprayed with a powder that makes it difficult for rubber shavings generated by abrasion of the test tire to adhere. with
36. A tire testing device as claimed in any one of claims 19 to 35.

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