East Hanover, NJ -- December 1, 2005 – Sensor Products LLC announces its next generation Tactilus® tire tread footprint profiling system. Capable of thousands of uses with consistent repeatability, Tactilus® now detects a wider range of pressures and offers greater advantages to engineers than its predecessor in the areas of adaptability and customization.Measuring and understanding vertically loaded tire tread footprint pressure distribution is paramount to any tire design process. Improper tire tread pressure distribution can result in bad road traction and high road noise, early tire replacement, and in extreme cases, tire failure. Carlos Ruiz, Sensor Products’ Tactilus® product manager said, “Tactilus® technology particularly lends itself to this sort of application.
Not only do the systems evaluate such low pressures with ease, but save time by providing information immediately with in-depth statistical data. He added, “Really, the response time is so immediate, these systems are also ideal for assembly line assessment for OEM’s and aftermarket product manufacturers.”In fact, well-known tire companies have benefited from Tactilus® in the past. For example, in an effort to continually improve the tire design process, Kumho America technical center manager Dr. Hamid Aboutorabi, employed the Tactilus® tire tread pressure analysis system.
Aboutorabi said, “I used the system over a period of time to obtain several static footprint pressure distribution profiles of a loaded tire. The profiles revealed some very uneven tire tread surface contact areas. The pressure distribution patterns we discovered helped us redesign our tires in pursuit of optimum tread surface contact and road handling properties.” In addition to Kumho America, other companies are using pressure mapping technologies from Sensor Products for tire design including Bridgestone/Firestone, Goodyear, Apollo Tyres and Nokian Tyres. Tactilus® is an electronic sensor system that evaluates tactile contact pressures in real-time.
The Tactilus® tire tread footprint profiling system comes equipped with all components necessary to collect data for comprehensive analysis, including the silicon substrate element with embedded matrix-based sensors, controller and user-friendly software. The system may be employed for any application where two surfaces mate, contact or impact.
Not only is Tactilus® conformable to highly curvaceous surfaces and intolerant environments, but is portable and runs on a standard laptop computer.The upgraded feature-rich software for Tactilus® offers 2-D and 3-D imaging, region-of-interest viewing, longitudinal and latitudinal analysis, graphical displays of data in bar, pressure vs. time, line scan, histogram and isobar charts, statistical analysis of average/minimum/maximum pressures, total force over any selected area and more. The data may also be exported to virtually any third party software.
Free on-site demonstrations of Tactilus® can be scheduled by contacting Sensor Products Inc. at 1.973.884.1755 or by visiting www.sensorprod.com/tactilus .
About Kumho Tires
Since 1961, Kumho Tires has steadily grown into a worldwide entity. Today, with 36 million tires produced annually and over 150 sales offices across the globe, Kumho Tires ranks as the tenth largest tire manufacturer in the world. Kumho Tires' commitment to advanced design technology results in the creation of a full line of excellent products that deliver optimum performance, quality, and most importantly, safety. The R&D teams at Kumho Tires are dedicated to continuously producing innovative designs using the latest technology and materials to combine performance with high levels of safety, durability, and eco-friendliness.
About Sensor Products LLC
New Jersey based Sensor Products LLC, established in 1990, is a world leader in the manufacture and distribution of tactile pressure sensing solutions. Their customized and off-the-shelf products are installed within all of the Fortune 500 industrial companies as well as thousands of smaller manufacturing firms. Their sensors are used in applications as diverse as tire testing to semiconductor manufacturing and from R&D labs to space missions. Additionally, Sensor Products provides in-house and on-site stress and pressure mapping analysis, as well as a variety of regional technical seminars.
Visit them at www.sensorprod.com .