Metal working – Means to assemble or disassemble – Including means to vibrate work
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-15
2001-12-04
Hughes, S. Thomas (Department: 3726)
Metal working
Means to assemble or disassemble
Including means to vibrate work
C029S894300, C029S894310, C157S016000, C157S017000, C157S018000, C157S021000, C269S236000, C269S243000, C301S005210
Reexamination Certificate
active
06324753
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mounting assistance device of a tire and wheel assembly, and more particularly, to a mounting assistance device of a tire and wheel assembly to accurately align a center of rotation of the assembly with an axle of an automobile when mounting the tire and wheel assembly onto the axle of the automobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an operation for mounting the tire and wheel assembly (which may be referred to simply as an assembly hereinafter) to the axle of a vehicle, it is vital to make the center of rotation of the tire and wheel assembly coincide with a central axis of the axle of the vehicle.
However, in this mounting operation, a moment, which tends to move a center of gravity of the assembly downwards from a center of rotation of the axle of the vehicle, always acts because of factors such as the assembly being heavy, the center of gravity of the assembly being offset toward an outside of the vehicle, and the like. As a result, the axle of the vehicle may not coincide with the center of rotation of the assembly and the assembly may end up being mounted to the axle of the vehicle in an eccentric state.
If the vehicle is run with the center of gravity of the assembly being eccentric as described above, because vibrating forces act on the vehicle from unsprung parts, vibration is generated and the tire is unevenly worn.
As a mounting method for avoiding the above-described drawbacks, there has been conventionally used a method in which the assembly is rotated while the tire thereof is tapped, diagonal pairs of one of mounting nuts and wheel bolts are successively tightened little by little until the one of nuts and bolts are not loose, and then final tightening thereof is carried out with a torque wrench.
However, this method depends to a large extent on levels of skill of operators and is not generic.
The present applicant has suggested a mounting assistance device, with which variations between operators are suppressed and an assembly is mounted to the axle of the vehicle with high accuracy without the assembly being caused to be eccentric, and a method thereof (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 7-228102). As illustrated in
FIG. 8
, in a mounting assistance device
2
, clamping members
8
and
10
abut against both side surfaces (sidewall portions) of a tire
6
of an assembly
4
, and a nut
11
is tightened. As a result, an eccentric disc
12
cannot move in directions X with respect to the clamping member
10
. When a handle
14
is rotated, the clamping member
8
and the clamping member
10
are caused to approach each other by a cam action of the eccentric disc
12
thereby clamping the tire
6
. In this state, rotation of the eccentric disc
12
is disabled by a nut
16
. Accordingly, a tightened state is locked so that a fixed state is securely maintained.
Vibration is applied to the assembly
4
in the above-described state by a vibrating device
18
. Vibration of the assembly
4
acts to offset eccentricity of the center of rotation of the assembly
4
. Accordingly, even if an operator is not skilled, the operator can mount the assembly to the axle of the vehicle with high accuracy by further tightening the one of hub bolts and nuts while vibrating the assembly.
However, when the mounting assistance device
2
is mounted to the assembly
4
, it is necessary to use a tool to tighten the nuts
11
and
16
to fix the eccentric disc
12
to the clamping member
10
and to maintain the tightened state, which is complicated. Accordingly, it has been desired that the mounting operation of the mounting assistance device
2
(the vibrating device
18
) should be carried out more efficiently.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is provided to solve the above-described problems and an object of the present invention is to provide a mounting assistance device which can efficiently mount a vibrating device to a tire and wheel assembly.
In order to accomplish the object, in a first aspect of the present invention, a mounting assistance device which clamps a tire-and-wheel assembly from both side surfaces thereof and vibrates the assembly comprises a first clamping member and a second clamping member for clamping the both side surfaces of the assembly; a first abutting portion and a second abutting portion which are portions of the first clamping member and the second clamping member respectively, and which abut against the side surfaces of the assembly, and which face each other with a distance therebetween which can be adjusted; a vibrating device which is fixed to one of the first clamping member and the second clamping member; a first eccentric member which is rotatably disposed at the second clamping member so as to abut against the first clamping member and is urged onto the second clamping member such that the first eccentric member moves integrally with the second clamping member; a first lock mechanism for fixing the first eccentric member to the second clamping member; and a handle member which enables an operation for fixing the first eccentric member to the second clamping member via the first lock mechanism, and enables an operation for rotating the first eccentric member; wherein the distance between the first abutting portion and the second abutting portion can be adjusted by rotation of the first eccentric member.
The mounting assistance device having the above-described aspect is used for mounting the assembly to an axle of a vehicle.
Firstly, the assembly is temporarily mounted to the axle of the vehicle with one of mounting nuts and wheel bolts. A distance between the first abutting portion of the first clamping member of the mounting assistance device and the second abutting portion of the second clamping member of the mounting assistance device is adjusted such that the first and the second abutting portions abut against sidewall portions of a tire. In this state, when the handle member is operated, the first eccentric member, which abuts against the first clamping member, is fixed to the second clamping member by the first lock mechanism.
Then, due to rotation of the first eccentric member, which is fixed at the second clamping member, by the operation of the handle, the distance between the first abutting portion and the second abutting portion is further contracted by an action of the first eccentric member which is, for example, an eccentric cam.
In this way, the mounting assistance device is tightened and fixed to the tire of the assembly and, even when vibration is applied to the assembly by the vibrating device, the mounting assistance device does not detach from the assembly. Thereafter, by gradual tightening of the one of mounting nuts and wheel bolts while the assembly is being vibrated, the wheel is mounted to the axle of the vehicle without the center of rotation of the wheel becoming eccentric with respect to the axle of the vehicle.
In accordance with the mounting assistance device based on the above-described aspect, the mounting assistance device can easily be mounted to the assembly simply by operation of the handle, without using a tool or the like. Accordingly, operating efficiency of a mounting operation is enhanced.
In a second aspect of the present invention, the first lock mechanism is formed as a second eccentric member, and by operation of the handle member in a first direction, the second eccentric member is rotated such that the first eccentric member and the second eccentric member are made integral and, by operation of the handle member in a second direction which is different from the first direction, the first eccentric member is rotated together with the second eccentric member.
According to the second aspect, since the handle member is provided with the second eccentric member, an operator can fix the first eccentric member to the second eccentric member (make the first eccentric member integral with the second eccentric member) and rotate the first eccentric member with the second eccentric member
Bridgestone Corporation
Hughes S. Thomas
Omgba Essama
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
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