Search Results (2)

The automotive industry is currently transforming, primarily due to the rise of electric and hybrid vehicle technologies and the need to reduce vehicle mass and energy losses to decrease consumption, pollution, and raw material usage. Additionally, road surface manufacturers emphasize improving pavement durability and reducing rolling noise. This necessitates precise load condition definitions and drives the need for reliable wheel testing benches. Many current benches use abrasive-coated rollers or synthetic tapes, but devices capable of testing on actual road surfaces are rare. In this work, a novel device for testing tire-pavement interaction is proposed. The system features a cart moving along a closed-track platform, ensuring test repeatability and enabling structural durability tests on uneven surfaces with installed obstacles. The cart is equipped with a cantilever arm capable of supporting either a testing wheel with customizable dimensions and kinematic parameters or a tire integrated with a complete suspension system, moving along a customizable pavement surface. The system includes actuators and sensors for applying vertical loads and adjusting the alignment of the testing wheel (slip angle, camber angle, etc.), allowing the characterization of tire behavior such as wear, fatigue, rolling noise, and rolling resistance. Multibody simulations were performed to evaluate the bench’s feasibility in terms of kinematics, power requirements, and structural loads. Results confirmed how this novel test bench represents a promising advancement in tire testing capabilities, enabling comprehensive studies on tire performance, noise reduction, and the structural dynamics of vehicle subsystems. Full article

Smoothness of tape movement and stability of the tape area where elements are generated are very important in precision mechatronic devices where precise elements are generated on a steel tape, controlling them in real time. During movement, deformations and vibrations form in the steel tape area where elements are generated as a result of imperfections of movement equipment, contact between the roller surface and the tape, and errors arising in the movement process. This article is based on the need for a detailed theoretical and experimental research of the effects occurring during the movement of the precision steel tape used in measuring systems with precision elements generated on the tape, including an investigation of the roller-tape contact. The article also aims to develop a model of the system for measuring the displacement of the tape in a raster formation device, to investigate and assess possible effects of external and internal factors on steel tape parameters. The article presents experimental research conducted for determining dynamic variables forming during the movement of a steel tape, assessing the factors that may cause raster generation errors in dynamic mode. Full article