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US 8,161,650 B2Granted
Workcell for tire and wheel assembly including a tire inflating sub-station that utilizes a flexible flip seal
AssigneeAndroid Industries LLC
InventorsLawrence J. Lawson, Robert Reece, Lawrence L. Reece, Richard J. Standen
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus for assembling a tire and a wheel is disclosed. The apparatus includes a single-cell workstation including a device that retains a wheel, and a plurality of sub-stations. The device moves the wheel to each of the plurality of sub-stations, without releasing the wheel, to assemble a tire-wheel assembly. A method is also disclosed.
Claims16
A device, comprising:
- a single cell work station including, a plurality of sub-stations;
- and
- an apparatus for retaining a first component from a first sub-station in said plurality of sub-stations and presenting the first component to at least a second and a third sub-station in said plurality of sub-stations without releasing the first component, wherein at least one of said second or third sub-stations presents a second component to said apparatus, wherein said apparatus joins said first and second components together, wherein said first and second component include a tire or a wheel, wherein the tire includes a bead, wherein the wheel includes a bead seat, wherein the plurality of sub-stations include:
- a tire inflating sub-station including a flip-seal, wherein the tire-inflating sub-station is moveably-disposed relative to the wheel such that the flip-seal is movable from an un-seated orientation away from and not in contact with the bead seat of the wheel to a seated orientation adjacent to and in contact with the bead seat of the wheel and back to the un-seated orientation upon inflation of the tire joined to the wheel, wherein an inflation procedure conducted by the tire inflating sub-station causes movement of the inflation sub-station relative to the wheel such that the flip-seal is moved from the un-seated orientation, to the seated orientation and back to the un-seated orientation, wherein movement of the flip-seal from the seated orientation back to the un-seated orientation permits the bead of the tire to be seated upon the bead seat.
1 more element
A device comprising:
- a single cell work station including, a plurality of sub-stations, an apparatus for retaining a first component from a first sub-station in said plurality of sub-stations and presenting the first component to at least a second and a third sub-station in said plurality of sub-stations without releasing the first component, wherein at least one of said second or third sub-stations presents a second component to said apparatus, and;
- wherein said apparatus joins said first and second components together, wherein said first and second component include a tire or a wheel, wherein the device further includes:
- a robotic arm for manipulating the apparatus, and, wherein the plurality of sub-stations further includes at least three sub-stations selected from the set of:
- a wheel repository sub-station, a tire and wheel mounting sub-station, a tire inflating sub-station, a lubricating sub-station, and a stemming sub-station, wherein the robotic arm includes:
- a claw portion, and an arm portion, wherein the claw portion is connected to the arm portion, wherein the claw portion releasably-attaches to an inner diameter of the wheel, wherein the claw portion includes:
- a fixed portion and a rotatable portion, wherein the rotatable portion is rotatably-disposed upon the fixed portion;
- wheel-engaging portions slidably-disposed upon the rotatable portion;
- sliding portions that are slidably-disposed within the fixed portion, wherein each sliding portion is coupled with one of each wheel-engaging portion, and an actuator portion coupled to the rotatable portion, wherein the fixed portion includes a central axial opening, radial guides and radial channels, wherein the rotatable portion includes a central axial post and arcuate channels, wherein the wheel-engaging portions each includes an axial portion and an opening, wherein each axial portion is slidably-disposed in one of each of the radial guides, wherein the sliding portions are slidably-disposed in the radial channels, wherein the sliding portions each includes an axial post that extend through the radial channels, the arcuate channels and the opening of each wheel-engaging portion, wherein the actuator portion including a key passage, wherein the central axial post extends through the central axial opening and the key passage.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.