Vehicle wheel balancer system

• US 7,574,913 B2
• Filed: 03/02/2005
• Issued: 08/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hunter Engineering Company
• Original Assignee: Hunter Engineering Company
• Inventors: Douglas, Michael W., Feero, William B., Scribner, David M., Gerdes, Michael D., Clasquin, Joel
• Primary Examiner(s): Williams; Hezron
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bellamy; Tamiko D
• Application Number:
  US11/070,140
• Publication Number:
  US 20050145028A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,630 Days
• Field of Search: 734/59, 734/61, 734/62, 734/58, 734/60, 734/68
• US Class Current: 73/468
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 1/02 Details of balancing machines or devices

Abstract

A method for determining weight display thresholds for static and dynamic imbalances and correction weights on a rotating body such as a vehicle wheel assembly, which vary with parameters of the rotating body, wheel and/or tire, and for displaying measured imbalances in relation to determined imbalance thresholds.

Claims

1. A method for displaying, on a balancer, an imbalance of a rotating body, comprising the steps of:

establishing a static imbalance threshold associated with an acceptable static imbalance of the rotating body;

establishing a dynamic imbalance threshold associated with an acceptable dynamic imbalance of the rotating body;

calculating both a static imbalance and a dynamic imbalance of the rotating body having an unknown imbalance; and

providing a display of a relationship between said calculated static imbalance and said associated established static imbalance threshold to an operator together with a display of a relationship between said calculated dynamic imbalance and said associated established dynamic imbalance threshold to an operator.

2. The method of claim 1 for displaying an imbalance of a rotating body wherein said step of establishing each of said imbalance thresholds establishes an imbalance threshold based on one or more dimensional characteristics of the rotating body.

3. The method of claim 1 for displaying an imbalance of a rotating body wherein said provided display is a non-numeric display including a representation of said calculated static imbalance relative to said establish static imbalance threshold, and of said calculated dynamic imbalance relative to said established dynamic imbalance threshold.

5. The method of claim 1 for displaying an imbalance of a rotating body wherein the step of calculating both a static and dynamic imbalance includes calculating both a static and dynamic imbalance remaining in the rotating body following application of one or more known imbalance correction weights at known positions.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said rotating body having an unknown imbalance includes at least a vehicle wheel rim.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein an imbalance correction weight amount associated with said established dynamic imbalance threshold is greater than an imbalance correction weight amount associated with said established static imbalance threshold.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein said calculated static imbalance and said calculated dynamic imbalance are represented as imbalance forces.

4. A method for displaying, on a balancer, an imbalance of a rotating body, comprising the steps of:

establishing a static imbalance threshold and a dynamic imbalance threshold;

calculating a static imbalance and a dynamic imbalance of the rotating body; and

providing a display of said calculated static imbalance in relation to said established static imbalance threshold to an operator, together with a display of said calculated dynamic imbalance in relation to said established dynamic imbalance threshold to an operator; and

wherein the step of providing a display further includes generating a scaled representation of said calculated static imbalance and said established static imbalance threshold together with a scaled representation of said calculated dynamic imbalance and said established dynamic imbalance threshold, each of said displayed representations scaled to fit within a display region.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein said rotating body having an unknown imbalance includes at least a vehicle wheel rim.

10. The method of claim 4 wherein an imbalance correction weight amount associated with said established dynamic imbalance threshold is greater than an imbalance correction weight amount associated with said established static imbalance threshold.

11. The method of claim 4 wherein said calculated static imbalance and said calculated dynamic imbalance are represented as imbalance forces.

12. A vehicle wheel balancer system having a central processing unit operatively coupled to receive imbalance data from imbalance sensors, and a display controlled by the central processing unit, comprising:

a memory operatively coupled to the central processing unit, said memory storing a static imbalance threshold for a vehicle wheel having an unknown imbalance undergoing an imbalance measurement procedure and a dynamic imbalance threshold for said wheel;

wherein the central processing unit is configured to calculate both a static imbalance and a dynamic imbalance of the vehicle wheel; and

wherein the central processing unit is further configured to control the display to present a representation of a relationship between said calculated static imbalance and said stored static imbalance threshold together with a representation of a relationship between said calculated dynamic imbalance and said stored dynamic imbalance threshold.

13. The vehicle wheel balancer system of claim 12 wherein the central processing unit is further configured to scale each of said displayed representations to fit within a display region of said display.

14. The vehicle wheel balancer system of claim 12 wherein the central processing unit is configured to establish, for storage in said memory, said static imbalance threshold and said dynamic imbalance threshold for the vehicle wheel.

15. The vehicle wheel balancer system of claim 14 wherein the central processing unit is configured to establish each of said thresholds based on one or more dimensional characteristics of the vehicle wheel.

16. The vehicle wheel balancer system of claim 12 wherein each of said presented representations is non-numeric.