Abstract A method of detecting a partially deflated pneumatic tyre on a vehicle having four tyres each mounted on a wheel comprising sensing the angular velocity of each wheel and producing a signal proportional thereto, processing the four signals in a processing unit which subtracts the sum of the signals from one pair of diagonally opposite wheels from the sum of the signals from the other pair of diagonally opposite wheels, sensing when the magnitude of the result is between 0.05% and 0.6% of the mean of the two sums to produce a signal factor and when said signal factor is present operating a warning device to indicate a tyre is partially or completely deflated wherein the angular velocity of each wheel is measured simultaneously by a pulse generator providing a digital signal of more than twenty pulses per revolution of the wheel and a second signal of a single pulse per revolution of the wheel and the two angular velocity signals are both used. The method may also compare the signal for each wheel with the average of all four wheels and if the difference is greater than 0.1% indicate a deflation. This allows detection of which wheel is deflated. Multi-pulse and single pulse detection may be selected according to speed and both used simultaneously.
Inventors
👤 John Charles Walker
👤 Lavinder Singh Rehal
Bibliographic Details
Application Number—
JurisdictionEP
Data Sourcegoogle_patents
Last Synchronized2026-10-26 16:44
CPC Classifications
B; B60; B60C; B60C23/00; B60C23/06; B60C23/061
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 7
Claim 1
Independent Claim
166 words
A method of detecting a partially deflated pneumatic tyre on a vehicle having four tyres each mounted on a wheel comprising sensing the angular velocity of each wheel and producing a signal proportional thereto, processing the four signals in a processing unit which subtracts the sum of the signals from one pair of diagonally opposite wheels from the sum of the signals from the other pair of diagonally opposite wheels, sensing when the magnitude of the result is between 0.05% and 0.6% of the mean of the two sums to produce a signal factor and when said signal factor is present operating a warning device to indicate a tyre is partially or completely deflated characterised in that the angular velocity of each wheel is measured simultaneously by a pulse generator providing a digital signal of more than twenty pulses per revolution of the wheel and a second signal of a single pulse per revolution of the wheel and the two angular velocity signals are both used.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
88 words
A method according to claim 1 characterised in that the processing unit also compares the signals for each of the four wheels in turn with the signals from each of the other wheels, senses when one of said signals is different from the average of all four signals by more than 0.1% and in the event of that signal factor and the other sensed signal factor calculated from the sums being present operates the warning device and uses the second signal factor to determine which wheel is deflated.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
42 words
A method according to claim 1 or claim 2 characterised in that the processing unit selects which of the angular velocity measuring systems to use for monitoring tyre deflation according to the speed of the vehicle calculated from one of said systems.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
27 words
A method according to claim 3 characterised in that the single pulse system is selected at low vehicle speeds and the multi-pulse system at high vehicle speeds.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
50 words
A method according to claim 1 or 2 characterised in that the single pulse system and the multi-pulse system are used in parallel at all times and the processing unit compares the result of both monitoring systems and indicates a deflation only when both systems indicate deflation in a tyre.
Claim 6
Independent Claim
44 words
A method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 characterised in that the two angular velocity signals are derived from a single multiple digital signal generator for each wheel, the single pulse signal being obtained by omitting intermediate pulses in each revolution.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
28 words
A method according to any of claims 1 to 5 characterised in that the two angular velocity signals are derived from two separate signal generators at each wheel.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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