Aircraft Wheel Hubcap Clamp Asymmetry for Balance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Aircraft wheels face balance issues due to uneven mass distribution caused by manufacturing variations, valves, and hubcap clamps, which require additional weights for compensation, and existing hubcap mounting methods concentrate stress and reduce balance predictability.
Innovation Solution
A hubcap mounting method using an annular hub with a cylindrical sidewall and circumferential flange featuring an alignment tab, clamped with a V-shaped clamp that ensures proper orientation without pins and bores, allowing for balanced mass distribution and reduced weight through strategic placement of the clamp.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a hubcap is installed after wheel balancing using conventional mounting methods, then the hubcap can be attached to the wheel, but the asymmetric clamp reduces wheel balance and requires additional counterweights
Solution Approach 1:
The clamp is deliberately designed with asymmetric mass distribution, placing the closure mechanism (and its excess mass) at a specific location. This asymmetric design is used to counterbalance the TPIS and other asymmetric components, eliminating the need for separate counterweights and maintaining wheel balance.
Solution Approach 2:
The clamp's closure mechanism serves as a built-in counterweight to offset the mass of the TPIS and other asymmetric elements on the wheel. By positioning the closure mechanism opposite these components, the clamp provides the necessary counterbalancing effect without requiring additional weights.
2Ease of operation
If conventional hubcap mounting with pins and openings is used, then the hubcap can be aligned with the wheel, but stress concentrates at the openings in the wheel flange
Solution Approach 1:
The invention removes the pins and openings from the wheel flange that were previously used for hubcap alignment. Instead, alignment is achieved through a groove in the wheel flange that receives the hubcap's alignment flange, eliminating the stress-concentrating openings while maintaining alignment functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
An alignment groove acts as an intermediary feature between the wheel flange and hubcap alignment flange. This groove provides a stress-distributing interface that maintains precise alignment without requiring pins or openings that would concentrate stress in the wheel flange.
3Adaptability or versatility
If a clamp with closure mechanism in any orientation is installed, then the hubcap can be attached, but the effect on wheel balance becomes unpredictable
Solution Approach 1:
The clamp is designed with asymmetric mass distribution, with the closure mechanism positioned at a specific location. This asymmetric design provides a predictable mass distribution that can be used to counterbalance asymmetric components like the TPIS, making the balance effect predictable rather than random.
Solution Approach 2:
The clamp's mass distribution and closure mechanism position are predetermined during manufacturing to provide the desired counterbalancing effect. This preliminary configuration ensures that when the clamp is installed, it automatically provides the necessary balance correction without requiring additional adjustment or creating unpredictable balance effects.
Data Source
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AI summary
A method of mounting a hubcap on a wheel that involves providing a wheel having an annular hub surrounding an axis of rotation, the hub including a first periphery extending along the circumference of a circle surrounding the axis of rotation and a second periphery spaced from the circumference of the circle, providing a hubcap having a top wall and a cylindrical sidewall extending from the top wall, the cylindrical sidewall having an end edge spaced from the top wall and a circumferential flange projecting from the cylindrical side wall, the circumferential flange having a sidewall and an alignment tab projecting from the sidewall, aligning the hubcap alignment tab with the second periphery, placing the hubcap sidewall against the hub and the alignment tab over the second periphery, and clamping the hubcap to the wheel. Also a wheel (10, 80) including a hubcap (30, 90) and a clamp (50).