Wheel Balancing Machine Automated Alignment System
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional wheel balancing machines require manual and often cumbersome operations for aligning and fitting wheels onto the balancing spindle, leading to inefficiencies and potential alignment errors, which increase execution times and labor costs.
Innovation Solution
A machine with a lifting device and automated actuator system, combined with contact-free sensors, automatically aligns and positions the wheel on the spindle, reducing operator intervention and improving alignment precision.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If manual alignment and fitting operations are used, then the operator can perform the task with simple equipment, but the execution time increases and alignment precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-alignment through automated sensors that detect wheel position and actuators that adjust the balancing spindle location, eliminating the need for manual visual alignment by the operator
Solution Approach 2:
Manual visual alignment operations are replaced by an automated system combining optical/laser sensors for detection and hydraulic/electric actuators for positioning, transforming a manual mechanical task into an automated sensor-actuator system
2Manufacturing precision
If manual visual alignment is used, then the equipment remains simple, but alignment precision deteriorates due to operator sensitivity and experience variations
Solution Approach 1:
Sensors continuously detect the relative position between wheel and balancing spindle, providing feedback to the control system which commands actuators to correct any misalignment, ensuring precise and repeatable alignment regardless of operator skill
Solution Approach 2:
The subjective visual alignment process performed by operators is replaced by objective sensor-based detection systems that measure position quantitatively and trigger automated corrections
3Productivity
If automated sensors and actuators are added, then alignment precision and productivity improve, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sensor system serves multiple functions: detecting wheel position during alignment, verifying centring accuracy, and potentially monitoring wheel characteristics, while the actuators perform both alignment and centring operations
Solution Approach 2:
The alignment and centring operations that were previously separate manual tasks are merged into a single automated process where sensors continuously monitor position and actuators perform both functions sequentially without operator intervention
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The machine significantly reduces wheel fitting and removal times, enhances operator safety, and minimizes alignment errors, thereby lowering labor and overall costs while improving operational efficiency.
Implementation Method 1
the use is known of particular lifting devices made up of a platform which is mobile both along a vertical direction and along a direction parallel with the balancing spindle
Implementation Method 2
optical detecting means, in the form of laser sensors, for scanning and detecting the profile of a wheel to be balanced
Implementation Method 3
the wheel is lifted up to the height of the balancing spindle by means of the operation of a hydraulic and/or pneumatic actuator that causes the platform to elevate
Implementation Method 4
the wheel is lifted up to the height of the balancing spindle by means of the operation of a hydraulic and/or pneumatic actuator that causes the platform to elevate
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3~5
Figure 6~7
AI summary
The machine for balancing vehicle wheels comprises a base frame supporting a substantially horizontal balancing spindle, a lifting device for lifting a vehicle wheel to be fitted/removed to/from the balancing spindle, contact-free reading means of the profile of the tyre associated with the base frame, and a processing and control unit operatively associated with the lifting device and with the reading means and suitable for calculating the position of the centre of the wheel in accordance with the values read by the reading means and for stopping the lifting device in an end-of-lifting position in which the wheel centre is substantially at the same height as the balancing spindle.