Mini-tire to wheel orienting system
AssigneeAllied Automation Systems, Inc.
InventorDaniel M. Flinn
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Apparatus for assuring that an uninflated mini tire mounted on a wheel is coaxially centered relative to the wheel prior to the arrival of the mini tire-wheel unit at the inflation station of a tire-wheel assembly line is disclosed which the mini-tire wheel unit is being conveyed in a horizontal position from the mounter to the inflator it is subjected to a hammer blow against the tire tread and subsequently apparatus mounted along opposite sides of the conveyor vertically press against an adjacent portion of one side wall of the tire. These actions jar the tire beads loose from a partially wedged engagement within the drop well of the wheel which tends to occur during the mounting of the mini tire on the wheel and to seat one bead of the tire upon the associated bead seat of the wheel.
Claims5
In a tire-wheel assembly line including a mounting station cyclically operable to mount an uninflated tire upon a wheel to repeatedly produce individual tire wheel units and conveying means for conveying said units in succession, in a horizontal position, along a fixed path from said mounting station to an inflation station cyclically operable to inflate the tire of each successive unit upon its wheel;
- the improvement comprising centering means for coaxially centering the mounted and uninflated tire upon its wheel prior to its arrival at said inflation station, said centering means comprising a first station having a first means on said fixed path actuable to strike a hammer blow, directed generally radially of the axis of a tire wheel unit at said first station, at a preselected location against the tread of the tire of said unit, circumferentially of the tire, and a second station having a second means on said fixed path actuable to engage one side wall of the tire of a unit being conveyed past said second station at locations on said tire symmetrically disposed adjacent opposite sides of said fixed path to vertically shift said sidewall relative to its wheel as the tire and wheel are conveyed past said second station.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.