The Intact tire test systems developed by Steinbichler Optotechnik offer an effective quality control for retreading and tire manufacturing companies. Typically, the inner side of the tire tread is measured in 8 sectors. Before starting the test cycle, the tire is horizontally loaded into the vacuum chamber. The measuring head rotates inside the tire. The high flexibility of the tire testers allows testing of tires with a wide range of diameters and sizes without any system changes. With an optional tilting axis on the measuring head, the inspection of the bead and sidewall of the tire is also possible. Owing to the fact that 95 % of the faults in a tire can be detected with the Intact systems, high safety standards are achieved. Especially for the retreading business the systems offer a high economic potential because useless carcasses can already be rejected before further processing takes place. In comparison to ultrasound test system, the decisive advantage lies in the fact that the tires do not need to be put into a water tank.

By phase shearography the interferogram is directly recorded by a CCD-videocamera. The phase image of the original state of the tire at normal pressure is stored in the image memory of the computer. The phase images of the deformed states of the tire at decreased pressure are subtracted from the stored image in real-time. Fault-typical deformations are displayed as interference fringes on the system monitor. The results can be stored for documentation on: hard disc of computer, CD, DVD, laserprinter, customer network. - On-line evaluation, thereby enabling a direct quality verdict of the casing immediately after test procedure - No influence by vibration in comparison to conventional interferometric methods - No film material is consumed