Wheel manufacturing method

• US 5,293,687 A
• Filed: 03/05/1993
• Issued: 03/15/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/1991
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Alcoa Incorporated (Howmet Aerospace, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Aluminum Company of America (Howmet Aerospace, Inc.)
• Inventors: Willoughby, Louis G. Jr., Jordan, Donald G.
• Primary Examiner(s): ECHOLS, PERCY W
• Application Number:
  US08/027,616
• Time in Patent Office: 375 Days
• Field of Search: 29/894, 29/894.35, 356/376, 356/381, 356/384, 356/386, 356/394
• US Class Current: 29/894.35
• CPC Class Codes: B21C 51/00 Measuring, gauging, indicating, counting, or marking devices specially adapted for use in the production or manipulation of material in accordance with subclasses B21B - B21F
• CPC Class Codes: B21K 1/28 wheels; discs
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/024 by means of diode-array scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/245 using a plurality of fixed, simultaneously operating transducers G01B11/2408 - G01B11/2425, G01B11/255 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49524 Rim making

Abstract

There is disclosed an improved method for manufacturing wheels in a production line by: hot-shaping metal into wheel-shaped articles which are larger in some areas than the wheels to be formed and which have a plurality of complexly-curved inner and outer surfaces; cooling the wheel-shaped articles and removing excess metal from some areas of the wheel-shaped articles. The improvement comprises: inspecting at least some of the wheel-shaped articles at a plurality of points along a transverse plane through the inner and outer surfaces of each article being inspected and at a plurality of transverse plane locations about the perimeter of each such article with a contactless gauging system recently after the articles have been hot-shaped to determine whether the articles are within dimensional requirements to form a wheel therefrom. The improvement further comprises taking corrective action to the hot-shaping operation to minimize the number of unacceptable wheel-shaped articles that are being formed after finding an article which is not within dimensional requirements.

Claims

1. In a method for manufacturing wheels in a production line by hot-shaping metal into wheel-shaped articles which are larger in some areas than the wheels to be formed and which have a plurality of complexly-curved inner and outer surfaces;

cooling the wheel-shaped articles; and

removing excess metal from some areas of the wheel-shaped articles, an improvement which comprises;

inspecting at least some of said wheel-shaped articles at a plurality of points along a transverse plane through said inner and outer surfaces and at a plurality of transverse plane locations about the perimeter of each article being inspected with a contactless gauging system recently after said articles have been hot-shaped to determine whether said articles are within dimensional requirements to form a wheel therefrom; and

taking corrective action to the hot-shaping operation to minimize the number of unacceptable wheel-shaped articles that are formed.

2. An improvement as set forth in claim 1 wherein the hot-shaping operation includes forging wheel-shaped articles from metal blanks.

3. An improvement as set forth in claim 1 wherein the wheels are manufactured from a metal selected from the group consisting of aluminum and steel.

4. An improvement as set forth in claim 1 wherein excess metal is removed from the wheel-shaped articles by a machining operation.

5. In a production line method for forming wheels which includes hot forming blanks of metal into wheel-shaped articles having a plurality of complexly-curved inner and outer surfaces, cooling said articles, and machining excess metal from said articles after they are cooled, the improvement which comprises:

(i) measuring at least some wheel-shaped articles promptly after they have been forged and before they are machined, said measuring using a plurality of lasers and cameras to determine the cross-sectional thickness of said articles at a plurality of points along a transverse plane through said inner and outer surfaces and at a plurality of transverse plane locations about the circumference of each measured article;

(ii) comparing the cross-sectional thicknesses of each measured article against the thicknesses of a similarly-shaped article that is acceptable for machining into a wheel; and

(iii) taking prompt correction action to the forging operation which a thickness of the measured article is outside of an acceptable range for machining.

6. In a production line method for forming wheels which includes hot forging blanks of metal into wheel-shaped articles having a plurality of complexly-curved inner and outer surfaces, cooling said articles, machining excess metal from said articles after they are cooled and taking prompt corrective action to the forming method when a wheel-shaped article is outside of an acceptable range for machining, the improvement which comprises:

(i) measuring at least some wheel-shaped articles promptly after they have been forged and before they are machined, said measuring using a plurality of lasers and cameras to determine the cross-sectional thicknesses of said articles at a plurality of points along a transverse plane through their inner and outer surfaces;

(i) indexing said articles for repeating measuring step (i) at a plurality of transverse plane locations about the circumference of each measured article; and

(iii) comparing said cross-sectional thicknesses of each measured article against the thicknesses of a similarly-shaped article acceptable for machining into a wheel.