Method and device for inspecting engravings in tire mold

1. A method, comprising:

inspecting engravings in a tire mold to determine suitability of an engraving formed on a surface of an annular side plate, which is a component of the tire mold, wherein the engravings are inspected by:

inputting into a data processing device two-dimensional image master data of the engraving formed on the surface of the annular side plate in a plan view pregenerated using a basic data set as a reference, the image master data having a radial component and a radial position of the engraving corrected on the basis of a locus length in a radial direction of the surface of the annular side plate, wherein the two-dimensional image master data represents only two dimensions of the engraving;

acquiring three-dimensional data of the engraving by actual measurement of the annular side plate as manufactured;

generating two-dimensional image actual measurement data, the image actual measurement data having a radial component and a radial position of the three-dimensional data corrected on the basis of a radial locus length of the surface of the annular side plate on which actual measurement was performed; and

determining whether or not an image shape and an image position of the image actual measurement data is within a tolerable range with respect to an image shape and an image position of the image master data via comparison processing of image contours of the image master data and the image actual measurement data by the data processing device; wherein

data of an engraving to be a reference in the image master data is input into the data processing device as reference engraving data, and upon the comparison processing of the image contours of the image master data and the image actual measurement data, reference engraving corresponding data in the image actual measurement data corresponding to the reference engraving data is automatically extracted by the data processing device, the method further comprising the steps of:

performing preliminary alignment of images of the image master data and the image actual measurement data by alignment processing of images of the reference engraving data and the reference engraving corresponding data; and

performing final alignment processing of the images of the image master data and the image actual measurement data after the preliminary alignment of the images of the image master data and the image actual measurement data.

2. A device for inspecting engravings in a tire mold capable of determining suitability of an engraving formed on a surface of an annular side plate, which is a component of the tire mold, the device comprising:

a data processing device configured to receive two-dimensional image master data of the engraving formed on the surface of the annular side plate in a plan view using basic data set as a reference, wherein the two-dimensional image master data represents only two dimensions of the engraving, the image master data having a radial component and a radial position of the engraving corrected on the basis of a locus length in a radial direction of the surface of the annular side plate, wherein the data processing device is further configured to receive data of a reference engraving to be a reference in the image master data as reference engraving data; and

a measuring unit configured to acquire three-dimensional data of the engraving by actual measurement of the annular side plate as manufacture; wherein

two-dimensional image actual measurement data is generated by the data processing device, the image actual measurement data having a radial component and a radial position of the three-dimensional data corrected on the basis of a radial locus length of the surface of the annular side plate on which actual measurement was performed;

whether or not an image shape and an image position of the image actual measurement data is within a tolerable range with respect to an image shape and an image position of the image master data is determined via comparison processing of image contours of the image master data and the image actual measurement data by the data processing device; and

the data processing device is further configured to:

automatically extract reference engraving corresponding data in the image actual measurement data corresponding to the reference engraving data;

perform preliminary alignment of images of the image master data and the image actual measurement data by alignment processing of images of the reference engraving data and the reference engraving corresponding data; and

performing final alignment processing of the images of the image master data and the image actual measurement data after the preliminary alignment of the images of the image master data and the image actual measurement data.

3. The device for inspecting engravings in a tire mold according to claim 2 , wherein the measuring unit includes an irradiating device configured to irradiate the surface of the annular side plate with a laser, and a camera device configured to acquire the three-dimensional data by capturing an image of the engraving irradiated by the laser.

4. The device for inspecting engravings in a tire mold according to claim 3 , further comprising a rotation mechanism configured to actuate rotational movement of the annular side plate and the camera device relative to one another about an annular center point of the annular side plate.