Load wheel drive
First Claim
1. A load wheel drive assembly that is retrofit to a conventional load wheel drive having a gear box and ball screw assembly connected to each other by a chain, the load wheel drive assembly comprising:
- a servo motor;
an adapter plate fastenable to the gear box on one side and fastenable to the servo motor on the other side; and
wherein said servo motor is switchable between analog velocity control adapted to drive the motor at a setpoint velocity and a fixed position control adapted to maintain a current position of the load wheel;
an enable relay connected to said servo drive, said enable relay having an energized state and a de-energized state, wherein said energized state switches said servo-drive to the analog velocity control, and wherein said de-energized state switches said servo drive to the fixed position control.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of positioning a load wheel in a tire uniformity machine to load a tire for testing, the method comprising providing a drive assembly including a drive motor and a drive controller, electrically connected to each other, said drive controller being adapted to switch between analog velocity control and position control; moving the load wheel with the drive motor using analog velocity control; and switching to position control to cause said motor to maintain a selected position of said load wheel without a mechanical brake.
-
Citations
13 Claims
-
1. A load wheel drive assembly that is retrofit to a conventional load wheel drive having a gear box and ball screw assembly connected to each other by a chain, the load wheel drive assembly comprising:
- a servo motor;
an adapter plate fastenable to the gear box on one side and fastenable to the servo motor on the other side; and
wherein said servo motor is switchable between analog velocity control adapted to drive the motor at a setpoint velocity and a fixed position control adapted to maintain a current position of the load wheel;
an enable relay connected to said servo drive, said enable relay having an energized state and a de-energized state, wherein said energized state switches said servo-drive to the analog velocity control, and wherein said de-energized state switches said servo drive to the fixed position control.
- a servo motor;
-
2. A method of retrofitting a servo motor to a load wheel drive having a DC motor, a gear box, and a controller the method comprising:
- removing the dc motor;
attaching an adapter to the gear box, providing receivers on the adapter that align with receivers on the servo motor;
fastening the servo motor to the adapter at said aligned receivers;
connecting the servo motor to the controller through a drive controller at a programmable input on the drive controller; and
programming said programmable input to cause the servo motor to hold a position if the controller is de-energized.
- removing the dc motor;
-
3. A load wheel drive assembly for an existing tire uniformity machine having a load wheel that is driven by a ball nut connected to a gear box, the load wheel drive assembly comprising:
- a servo motor attachable to said gear box and operable therewith to control movement of the load wheel, said servo motor having a programmable input associated therewith and in communication with a controller, said controller having a relay in communication with said programmable input and adapted to switch said servo motor between a velocity mode and a position mode of operation.
- View Dependent Claims (4)
-
5. A load wheel drive assembly that is retrofit to a conventional load wheel drive having a gear box that interconnects with a ball screw used to drive a load wheel, wherein movement of the load wheel is controlled by a controller that receives force feed back from at least one load cell associated with the load wheel, the load wheel drive assembly comprising:
- a servo motor attachable to the gear box and operatively connected therewith;
a drive controller electrically connected to the controller and said servo motor, said drive controller having at least one programmable input adapted to switch operation of said servo motor between analog velocity control and position control, wherein said servo motor drives the load wheel at an average velocity when in said analog velocity control mode and wherein said servo motor maintains a selected position when in said position control mode;
wherein said programmable input is in communication with the controller and is programmed to switch to position control upon receiving a signal from the controller indicating that the load wheel is in a selected position, whereby said servo motor being in a position control mode holds the selected position. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
- a servo motor attachable to the gear box and operatively connected therewith;
-
13. A method of positioning a load wheel in a tire uniformity machine to load a tire for testing, the method comprising providing a drive assembly including a drive motor and a drive controller, electrically connected to each other, said drive controller being adapted to switch between analog velocity control and position control;
- moving the load wheel with the drive motor using analog velocity control; and
switching to position control to cause said motor to maintain a selected position of said load wheel without a mechanical brake.
- moving the load wheel with the drive motor using analog velocity control; and
Specification