Kobe Steel, Ltd.

Glen R Thompson

Takehiko Wakazono

Yasuhiko Fujieda

Shogo Sarumaru

Tetsuya Yoshikawa

Dale A Vernyi

A tire uniformity testing machine includes an upper spindle including an upper rim portion, a lower spindle including a lower rim portion, and a spindle actuator such as a servo actuator adapted to vary a distance between the upper and lower spindles along a y axis. The tire testing machine also includes a conveyor adapted to move an associated tire to be tested along an x axis in a conveying direction. The conveyor is driven by a conveyor actuator said as a servo actuator. A motion controller is provided and receives x axis position feedback indicating a conveying distance moved by the conveyor along said x axis and that uses the x axis position feedback to control the spindle actuator to vary the distance between the upper and lower spindles along the y axis according to a function y=F(x) for coordinated synchronous variation of the distance between the upper and lower spindles along the y axis in response to movement of the conveyor along the x axis. The conveyor also moves vertically along the y axis and its position along with y axis can also be controlled by a servo actuator for coordinated vertical movement as a function of said x axis position feedback and/or as a function of y axis position feedback provided by said spindle actuator indicating a distance between said lower and upper spindles.

Tire testing machine

To effectively suppress a shift of a rotating axis of an upper chuck with respect to a rotating axis of a lower chuck due to a separating force. A tire testing device () includes: vertical frames () which are supported by a lower frame (); a beam () which bridges between the vertical frames () and is movable in the vertical direction; an upper chuck () which is attached to the center of the beam (), the center corresponding to the center of the beam in the longitudinal direction; and a lower chuck () which is attached to the lower frame. When viewed from the vertical direction, a rotating axis of an upper rotating member () is positioned at the center of a straight line formed by connecting supporting points where each of the vertical frames () support the beam ().

Tire testing device

Provided is a loading device that is provided in a tire testing machine including a testing station () provided with a spindle () attached with a tire () to be tested and feeds the tire () from a predetermined standby position to a testing position where the center of the spindle matches the center of the tire () in the testing station (). The loading device includes: conveyors () that convey the tire () from the standby position toward the testing position in a direction perpendicular to the axial direction of the tire; and positioning devices (B,) that position the tire to be tested to a position, in which a front end of the tire in the feeding direction matches a point separated from the spindle by a predetermined distance, as the standby position. Setting of the standby position based on the position of the front end of the tire () in the feeding direction shortens the feeding distance and the feeding time and hence shortens the testing cycle time.

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Cuyahoga Falls, OH, United States of America

Glen R Thompson