Repco Inc.

Gerhart W Harant

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for dynamically measuring vehicle front end parameters such as toe-in (or toe-out) and camber angle. The apparatus includes a separate pair of support rollers for supporting each vehicle front wheel and causing rotation thereof. A sensing roller is adapted to contact the tire tread surface at the lowermost point of the tire so as to be rotated by rotation of the wheel. The axis of the sensing roller is arranged transverse to the plane of rotation of the wheel such that any toe-in or toe-out of the wheel causes a transverse or generally axial displacement of the sensing roller to a position wherein the axis of the sensing roller is normal to the toe-in or toe-out direction of the wheel. The sensing roller is mounted on an axle which forms one bar of a trapezium shaped four bar linkage which causes said sensing roller to pivot about an effective pivot point which is arranged, by means of said linkage, a considerable distance away from the wheel. The pivot point is the point of intersection of the center lines of the tapered sides of the linkage since the bars of the linkage are pivotally interconnected. A further sensing roller for measuring camber angle and methods of measuring toe-in and camber angle are also disclosed and claimed.

Measuring vehicle front end parameters

The invention relates to machines which determine the unbalance in a workpiece by rotating the workpiece and measuring the unbalance forces reacted into the machine frame. A drive arrangement is disclosed for rotating a spindle supporting the workpiece in such a machine for balancing vehicle wheels. The arrangement comprises a spindle housing for rotatably supporting the spindle and mounted on a base frame in a manner whereby the forces are reacted into a single direction and measured. The invention resides in the drive arrangement which includes speed changing means in the form of a worm gear on the spindle and a worm drive mounted on the spindle housing. A drive motor for driving the worm is mounted on the machine frame, that is, away from the spindle housing and drives the worm by means of a belt drive between a motor pulley and a pulley connected to the worm. The arrangement disclosed provides optimum isolation of forces occurring in the motor and drive and the speed changing means ensures that any spurious cyclical forces reacted into the single direction occur at a substantially different frequency to those being measured and are thus easily isolated electrically.

Drive for balancing machines

A spindle mounting for a wheel balancing machine of the kind in which the spindle is arranged substantially horizontal and has a cantilevered end portion for receiving a wheel to be balanced. The mounting includes a housing for rotatably supporting the spindle, and flexible support means connecting that housing to a base which is securable to a frame of the balancing machine. The support means includes at least three elongate support members which extend transverse to the spindle axis and are arranged in spaced side by side relationship, and an elongate restraining member arranged substantially parallel to the spindle. The support members are connected between the housing and base to provide column supports for the housing, and the restraining member has its opposite end portions connected to the housing and base respectively to hold the housing against endwise movement relative to the base. Each support member and the restraining member has sufficiently low lateral stiffness to permit relatively free lateral movement of the housing relative to the base in a plane extending transverse to the support members. A pair of force transducers are secured to the base and are connected to the housing through elongate reactor members so as to respond to lateral movement of the housing by generating a signal characteristic of the force causing that movement, and each reactor member is elongate and has sufficiently low lateral stiffness to substantially limit the transducer response to those forces acting in the aforementioned plane laterally of the spindle.

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Blackburn, Australia

Gerhart W Harant