Nondestructive Tire Inspection Studies at the Transportation Systems Center

A program is underway at the DOT/Transportation Systems Center to study the nondestructive detection of defects in tires, and to determine the relationship between these defects and tire failure. Ultrasonics, x-ray, infrared, holography, and other techniques are being used to determine their effectiveness as well as their limitations in this task.

This paper describes the use and modification of the equipment for nondestructive inspection of new and retreaded tires. It also describes the use of a computer data bank for data collection, storage, and retrieval in the correlation of results.