Non-destructive evaluation of separation and void defect of a pneumatic tire by speckle shearing interferometry

This paper describes the speckle shearing interferometry, a non-destructive optical method, for quantitative estimation of void defect and monitoring separation defect inside of a pneumatic tire. Previous shearing interferometry has not supplied quantitative result of inside defect, due to effective factors. In the study, factors related to the details of an inside defect are classified and optimized with pipeline simulator. The size and the shape of defect can be estimated accurately to find a critical point and also is closely related with shearing direction. The technique is applied for quantitative estimation of defects inside of a pneumatic tire. The actual traveling tire is monitored to reveal the cause of separation and the starting points. And also unknown void defects on tread are inspected and the size and shape of defects are estimated which has good agreement with the result of visual inspection.