A mobile robot tool has a wheel demounting sub-system mounted to a tool frame for screw disengaging fasteners from respective anchor elements integral with a hub of a vehicle from which the wheel is being demounted. Also mounted on the frame are fastener storage seats for storing respective ones of the fasteners. A transfer mechanism is operable to remotely transfer disengaged ones of the fasteners from the anchor elements to respective ones of the fastener storage seats.

A system is disclosed. The system includes a processing station for processing at least one of a tire and a wheel prior to joining the tire and the wheel for forming a tire-wheel assembly. The processing station includes one of a tire lubricating sub-station and a wheel lubricating sub-station. A lubrication conditioning system is fluidly-coupled to the processing station. The lubrication conditioning system includes: a lubricant reservoir, a lubricant temperature modifier arranged at least proximate to the lubricant reservoir, a lubricant temperature sensor arranged within a cavity formed by the lubricant reservoir and a controller communicatively-coupled to both of the lubricant temperature modifier and the lubricant temperature sensor.

There is provided a tire-mounting/removing robot capable of automatically grasping a spent or used tire in which a tire wheel is mounted, a tire-mounting/removing system in which the tire wheel can be automatically removed from and mounted in the spent or used tire in which the tire wheel is mounted by using this tire-mounting/removing robot, and a tire-gripping head used in the tire-mounting/removing robot and the tire-mounting/removing system. Hand portions that grasp a tire or a tire wheel, and mechanisms that open and close the hand portions are provided. The hand portion includes a claw portion in an end portion of the hand portion, and this claw portion includes a first claw portion to be locked onto an edge portion of a rim of the tire wheel to grasp the tire wheel or a tire wheel-mounted tire in which this tire wheel is mounted, and a second claw portion to be locked onto a bead portion of a tire wheel-non-mounted tire to grasp the tire wheel-non-mounted tire.

A bead exerciser system for an automated wheel assembly may include a center lift configured to lift a wheel assembly off of a conveyor belt, a drum roller configured to rotate the wheel assembly, a pair of pinch rollers driven by a driver and configured to apply force to a tire of the wheel assembly, a force sensor configured to detect a force of the tire against the pinch rollers, and a controller configured to receive the force from the force sensor and generate a command for an alert in response to the force falling outside of a predefined threshold range.

An autonomous traverse tire changing bot includes a carriage having a carriage frame with a carriage drive section effecting autonomous traverse of the carriage, along a traverse path, relative to a traverse surface or a floor on which the bot rests, and a bot frame including at least one actuator mounted to the carriage and a bot drive section with a motor defining an actuator degree of freedom, wherein the at least one actuator has an end effector having a tire engagement tool disposed so that articulation of the at least one actuator with the actuator degree of freedom effects engagement contact of the tire engagement tool and a tire mounted on a vehicle, and a controller effects traverse of the bot along the traverse path effecting dynamic positioning of the at least one actuator relative to a variable position of the vehicle with the tire mounted thereon.

A handling robot includes an articulated arm movable in three directions, which carries a gripper at its free end for gripping and holding pneumatic tires. The pneumatic tire is held on its running surface by the gripper, taken from a provision position and moved to an optional wetting station for wetting the pneumatic tire with lubricant. The wetted pneumatic tire is then moved to an assembly station with a clamping device for releasably holding a wheel rim, which comprises a handling device with an assembly head equipped with assembly tools that can be guided along between the tire bead and the wheel rim flange. Here, the pneumatic tire is mounted on the wheel rim by a coordinated movement of the handling robot and the assembly head.

An apparatus for processing a tire and a wheel for forming a tire wheel assembly is disclosed. The apparatus includes a tire support member including a first tire support member, a second tire support member and a third tire support member. Each of the first, second and third tire support members include an upper surface and a lower surface. The apparatus includes a plurality of tire engaging devices including a first tire tread engaging post and a second tire tread engaging post. A method for processing a tire and a wheel for forming a tire wheel assembly is also disclosed.

A tire-changing and balancing workstation comprises a tire changer, a wheel balancer and a robot. A method allows the robot to pick up a wheel and tire assembly assembled on the tire changer and transfer it to the wheel balancer without human intervention.

A robotic tire changing machine having a processing system is configured with software instructions to carry out the procedures for tire mounting and demounting, and with software instructions to detect and respond to abnormal operating conditions during a tire mounting or demounting procedure. A specific response to the detection of an abnormal operating condition by the processing system is guided by the software instructions and is associated with the particular state in which the tire changing machine is in and/or the current step of an ongoing tire mounting or demounting procedure. The specific responses may include, but are not limited to, providing a prompt or instruction to an operator, providing a warning to an operator, carrying out one or more additional procedural steps, suspending operations to await an operator action, or limiting movement of articulated components during the tire mounting or demounting procedure.

A tire characteristic determination system is disclosed. The tire characteristic determination system includes a memory device that stores tire-engaging data related to one or more tire-engaging value to be utilized for spatially manipulating a tire about a wheel for forming a tire-wheel assembly. The tire characteristic determination device includes a tire-engaging test probe that is urged adjacent the tire at one or more tire displacement distances or is urged against the tire with one or more amounts of urging forces. The tire characteristic determination device is communicatively-coupled to the memory device for communicating the one or more tire displacement distances or the one or more amounts of urging forces to the memory device.