Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 11
Claim 1
Independent Claim
46 words
A vehicle tyre monitoring system characterised in that means (4) sense heat radiated from a tyre (3), comparison means (7,23) determine departure of the radiated heat from an expected norm, and an alarm (22) is arranged to be actuated when said departure reaches a significant extent.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
46 words
A vehicle tyre monitoring system characterised in that means (4) sense heat radiated from a tyre (3), comparison means (7,23) determine departure of the radiated heat from an expected norm, and an alarm (22) is arranged to be actuated when said departure reaches a significant extent.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
24 words
A system as claimed in Claim 1, characterised in that the comparison means (7,23) compare tyre heat with ambient temperature,the latter constituting said norm.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
42 words
A system as claimed in Claim 1 or 2 applied to a plurality of tyres, characterised in that the comparison means (7,23) compare each tyre heat reading with the mean of the readings of all the tyres, this mean constituting said norm.
Claim 5
Independent Claim
40 words
A system as claimed in any preceding claim, characterised in that a radiated heat sensor (4) is mounted within a wheel arch for the tyre(3), and is arranged to register with a portion of the side wall of the tyre.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
30 words
A system as claimed in Claim 4, characterised in that the sensor (4) is on the inboard side of the wheel arch, facing the inner side wall of the tyre.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
27 words
A system as claimed in Claim 4 or 5, characterised in that the sensor (4) comprises a detector (27) at the focus of a parabolic shell (28).
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
30 words
A system as claimed in Claim 6, characterised in that a window (30) substantially transparent to radiated heat protects the detector (27) and reflective inner surface of the shell (28).
Claim 9
Independent Claim
77 words
A system as claimed in any preceding claim applied to a plurality of tyres, characterised in that at least some of the tyres are those of a trailer (2) and the alarm (22) is on the towing vehicle (1), and in that the trailer tyre heat readings are encoded by means .(6) on the trailer, transmitted to the towing vehicle by a common line (13), and decoded and separated by means (18) on the towing vehicle (1).
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
23 words
A system as claimed in Claim 8, characterised in that the common line .(13) carries the towing vehicle's DC supply to the trailer.
Claim 11
Independent Claim
46 words
A system as claimed in any preceding claim, characterised in that means (5) are provided to determine ambient temperature and a fall of such temperature below a predetermined level is arranged to activate said alarm (22) in a manner distinguishable from that generated by a tyre.