JP2011251661A - Rim cleaner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a rim cleaner that properly removes a foreign matter adhering to a wheel rim, prevents air leakage and significantly reduces personnel costs required in putting a tire on.SOLUTION: While a wheel W is placed on two drive rollers 11 and 12 and pressed by a presser roller 13, the drive rollers 11 and 12 are rotated by a roller driver motor 15 to rotate the wheel W. A cleaner head 2 to be rotated by a head-rotation power source 31 is brought into contact with a rim R of the wheel W to remove the foreign matter adhering to the rim R. The cleaner head 2 is configured by implanting a plurality of wire materials 22 into a head body 21.

Description

  The invention of the present application relates to the removal of foreign matter adhering to a wheel rim for a vehicle such as an automobile or a motorcycle.

  Vehicles such as automobiles and motorcycles travel with tires attached to wheel rims. The wheel is usually composed of a hub connected to the axle, a rim for fitting a tire, and a spoke connecting the hub and the rim. However, in an automobile wheel, the hub, the spokes, and the rim are often integrally formed of metal, and in this case, they should be referred to as “rim portions”, but are collectively referred to as “rims” in this specification.

JP 7-304301 A

  Many of today's vehicle tires are tubeless tires, and if the contact between the rim and the tire contact is poor, air leaks. When a tire is mounted on a wheel, if a foreign object is caught between the rim and the tire, it causes air leakage. The foreign matter is small dust or tire fragments (for example, burrs are peeled off). When inserting a tire into a new wheel, there is little pinching of foreign matter, but when removing a used tire from the wheel and replacing it, or when reusing a used wheel, foreign matter is attached to the rim. Often overlooked, causing air leaks.

Because of these problems, in car parts stores and gas stations, where tires have been replaced, after removing the tires in use and then removing the foreign objects completely by hand, the new (or used) Tires are still being worn. This removal of foreign matter is time-consuming, and the labor cost is considerable.
The invention of the present application has been made to solve the above-described problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a suitable rim cleaner that can remove foreign matter adhering to the rim of a wheel, and prevents air leakage. However, it has the significance of drastically reducing labor costs when mounting tires.

In order to solve the above problems, the invention according to claim 1 of the present application is a rim cleaner that removes foreign matter adhering to a rim of a wheel,
A rotation mechanism that rotates the wheel;
A cleaner head,
It has a configuration in which a cleaner head is brought into contact with a rotating wheel rim to remove a foreign substance.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 2 has a configuration in which, in the configuration of claim 1, the rotating mechanism can rotate wheels having different sizes.
In order to solve the above problem, the invention according to claim 3 is the configuration according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the rotation mechanism includes two drive rollers that rotate while supporting the wheel on the lower side. It has the structure of being a thing.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 4 is the configuration according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the rotation mechanism is configured to contact at least three rollers that hold the wheel in contact with a peripheral surface of the wheel. And at least one of the rollers is a drive roller that rotates the wheel by frictional force.
In order to solve the above problem, the invention according to claim 5 is the structure according to claim 4, wherein at least one of the rollers is displaceable according to the size of the wheel. Have.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, according to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the configuration according to any of the first to fifth aspects, the head driving mechanism contacts the rim while rotating the cleaner head. It has the structure of.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, according to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the configuration according to any one of the first to sixth aspects, the head drive mechanism is a cleaner for adjusting the position while the cleaner head is in contact with the rim. It has a configuration that the mechanism can displace the head.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 8 has a structure in which the cleaner head has the shape of an abacus in the structure according to any one of claims 1 to 7.
Further, in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 9 is the configuration according to claim 8, wherein the abacus-shaped rim cleaner is configured such that the angle of the cross section of the mid-abdominal apex portion is the angle formed by the flange portion of the rim. It has a configuration that conforms to.
In order to solve the above problem, the invention according to claim 10 is the structure according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the cleaner head comprises a head body and a large number of wires implanted in the head body. It has the composition of being.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 11 has a structure in which, in the structure of claim 10, the plurality of wires are made to have different hardness depending on the portion of the rim to be contacted.

As described below, according to the invention described in claim 1 of the present application, the foreign substance is removed by pressing the cleaner head against the rotating wheel, so that it is compared with the conventional technique in which the foreign substance is removed by a complete manual operation. This greatly reduces labor. For this reason, the labor cost at the time of mounting | wearing a tire is prevented significantly, preventing an air leak.
Further, according to the invention described in claim 2, in addition to the above-described effect, foreign matter can be removed from wheels having different sizes, so that an effect of high versatility can be obtained.
Further, according to the invention of claim 3 or 4, in addition to the above effect, the wheel is held and rotated by the roller, so that it can be mechanically simplified as compared with a configuration in which the wheel is held and rotated by the shaft. As a result, there is an effect that the problem of scratching the wheel is small.
Further, according to the sixth aspect of the invention, in addition to the above effect, the cleaner head rotates, so that an effect that foreign matter can be removed more efficiently can be obtained.
According to the seventh aspect of the invention, in addition to the above effect, the head driving mechanism is a mechanism that can displace the cleaner head for position adjustment while the cleaner head is in contact with the rim. Regardless of the size of the rim and the shape of the outer periphery of the rim, a sufficient contact area is ensured and the effect that foreign matter can be sufficiently removed is obtained.
According to the invention described in claim 8, in addition to the above effect, the cleaner head has an abacus shape, so that the effect of removing foreign matter at the same time on the flange and the rim end can be obtained, and the cleaner head is rotated. In addition, it is possible to obtain the effect that it is also suitable.
Further, according to the ninth aspect of the invention, in addition to the above effect, the angle of the central corner portion of the cleaner head is adapted to the angle of the rim corner portion, so that the rim including the rim corner portion is sufficiently cleaned. The effect that it can do is acquired.
According to the invention described in claim 10, in addition to the above effect, the cleaner head is composed of the head main body and a large number of wires implanted in the head main body. Therefore, the rim can be selected by appropriately selecting the hardness of the wire. The effect that the foreign matter can be sufficiently removed with less scratching is obtained.
According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, in addition to the above-described effect, since many wires have different hardness depending on the portion of the rim that comes into contact with the rim, the rim is hardly damaged and the foreign matter is sufficiently removed. The effect that it can be performed is acquired.

It is a perspective schematic diagram of the rim cleaner of an embodiment. FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of the rim cleaner shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of the rim cleaner shown in FIG. 1. It is the schematic of a cleaner head, (1) is a schematic perspective view, (2) is a schematic sectional view, (3) is a schematic sectional view of a more preferred cleaner head. FIG. 5 is a schematic side view illustrating a state in which foreign matter removal is performed using the cleaner head illustrated in FIG. 4. It is a perspective schematic diagram of the head drive mechanism mounted in the rim cleaner of an embodiment. It is the side surface schematic shown about operation | movement of the head drive mechanism. It is the figure which showed roughly about the various structures of the movement of a cleaner head. It is the schematic shown about the various shapes of a cleaner head.

Next, modes for carrying out the present invention (hereinafter referred to as embodiments) will be described.
1 is a schematic perspective view of the rim cleaner according to the embodiment, FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of the rim cleaner shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a schematic side view of the rim cleaner shown in FIG. The rim cleaner shown in FIG. 1 includes a rotation mechanism 1 that rotates a wheel W, a cleaner head 2, and a head drive mechanism 3 that makes the cleaner head 2 contact the rim R of the rotating wheel W.
In the rim cleaner, each part is installed on a gantry 100 having casters 101 on the lower surface. On the gantry 100, a housing 102 in which each mechanism is housed is provided.

In the present embodiment, the rotation mechanism 1 is a mechanism that rotates the wheel W while holding the wheel W on its peripheral surface by the three rollers 11, 12, and 13. The “circumferential surface of the wheel” is the surface of the rim in the present embodiment, but may be the surface of a portion other than the rim. The three rollers 11, 12, and 13 are arranged such that the respective rotation axes extend in a horizontal and parallel direction, and are located on the same vertical plane. When viewed from the front, the three rollers 11, 12, and 13 are located at the vertices of an isosceles triangle, the lower two rollers 11 and 12 have the same height, and the upper roller 13 has two It is arranged directly above the intermediate position between the lower rollers 11 and 12.
Each of the rollers 11, 12, and 13 has a resin surface so as not to damage the contacting wheel W. For example, it is possible to employ a structure in which a protective ring formed of a silicon resin or a fluororesin such as Teflon (registered trademark) is fitted to a metal roller body.

  The lower two rollers 11 and 12 are rollers that receive and support the wheel W and rotate the wheel W by frictional force (hereinafter referred to as drive rollers). The drive rollers 11 and 12 are fixed to the tips of drive rods 110 and 120 that extend horizontally and coaxially. A fixed base 104 is provided on the rear panel 103 of the housing 102. The rear ends of the drive rods 110 and 120 are fixed to the fixed base 104 via bearings. The drive rods 110 and 120 pass through the front panel 105 of the housing 102 through bearings, and are held by the rear panel 103 and the front panel 105 so as to be horizontally rotatable.

  Drive gears 111 and 121 are connected to the drive rods 110 and 120, respectively. The two drive gears 111 and 121 are connected to the output gear 151 of the roller drive motor 15 via the chain 14, and the drive rods 110 and 120 are rotated by the roller drive motor 15, whereby the two drive rollers 11. , 12 rotate at the same speed. As can be seen from FIG. 1, the rotation of the wheel W is a rotation around a rotation axis coinciding with the central axis of the wheel W itself. In place of the gears 111, 121, 151 and the chain 14, a combination of a pulley and a belt may be employed.

Moreover, as shown in FIG. 1, the two drive rollers 11 and 12 are long in the axial direction. This is because foreign matter can be removed even with a wheel W having a long axial length (a wheel W on which a wider tire is mounted).
Stopper flanges 112 and 122 for positioning the wheel W are provided at the rear ends of the drive rollers 11 and 12, respectively. The stopper flanges 112 and 122 are members that protrude circumferentially at the rear ends of the drive rollers 11 and 12, and the position of the wheel W is determined by receiving the rim R of the wheel W at this portion.

  The upper roller 13 is a roller that is pressed from above so that the rotating wheel W does not jump up (hereinafter referred to as a pressing roller). The pressing roller 13 is a driven roller that is driven by the rotation of the wheel W. The pressing roller 13 is fitted into the shaft bar 131 via a bearing. The shaft bar 131 is inserted into the opening 106 provided in the front panel 105.

  The three rollers 11, 12, and 13 can rotate while stably holding the wheel W, and can stably hold and rotate the wheel W of different sizes. Specifically, the two lower drive rollers 11 and 12 are kept at the same position. A vertical movement mechanism 4 is attached to the upper pressing roller 13. The vertical movement mechanism 4 includes an arm 41 connected to a shaft 131 holding the pressing roller 13, a slider 42 connected to the arm 41, a rail 43 into which the slider 42 is fitted, and the like. The rail 43 is arranged in a vertically extending posture, and the pressing roller 13 moves up and down via the arm 41 and the shaft bar 131 when the slider 42 slides along the rail 43. The slider 42 is provided with a fixing tool (not shown) that fixes the position on the rail 43. As the fixing tool, a mechanism in which a spring is attached to a clamp that is fixed by pinching can be used. As shown in FIG. 2, the opening 106 of the front panel 105 is long in the vertical direction, and allows the shaft bar 131 to move up and down with a necessary stroke.

  When the wheel W for removing foreign matter is mounted, the wheel W is placed in a standing posture (a posture in which the central axis is horizontal) and placed on the two driving rollers 11 and 12. At this time, the center axis of the wheel W is made parallel to the rotation axes of the three rollers 11, 12, 13, and the rim R is positioned against the stopper flanges 112, 122. Then, the fixing tool (not shown) is loosened, the slider 42 is lowered, and the pressing roller 13 is brought into contact with the wheel W. At that position, a fixing tool (not shown) is tightened to fix the pressing roller 13. Thereby, the wheel W is stably held by the three rollers 11, 12, and 13, and the wheel W is rotated by the rotation of the two drive rollers 11 and 12.

  Next, the cleaner head 2 will be described. 4A and 4B are schematic views of the cleaner head 2, in which (1) is a perspective schematic view and (2) is a cross-sectional schematic view. FIG. 4 (3) is a schematic cross-sectional view of a more preferable cleaner head. As shown in FIG. 4 (1), as the cleaner head 2, a brush-like head is employed in the present embodiment. That is, the cleaner head 2 includes a head main body 21 and a number of short wires 22 implanted on the surface of the head main body 21.

Care should be taken when selecting the wire 22. If a very hard wire 22 is used, it becomes easy to break. In order to remove the foreign matter stuck to the rim R, it is necessary to press the cleaner head 2 against the rim R with a certain strong force, but at this time, the wire 22 is easily broken. On the other hand, if the soft wire 22 is used, in the case of the soft wire 22, wear and deformation, in particular, deformation in which the wire 22 bends and spreads easily occurs. In this case, the tip of the wire 22 does not sufficiently contact the rim R, and foreign matter removal cannot be performed sufficiently.
Any material such as metal or plastic can be adopted as the material of the wire 22, but it is necessary to select the thickness and material in consideration of the above points. When a specific example is shown, in the case of a metal, a brass wire, a copper wire, etc. can be used. In the case of plastic, nylon wire or the like can be used, but nylon wire with abrasive grains can be suitably used in order to enhance the effect of removing foreign matter. As an example of the wire diameter, for example, in the case of a brass wire, the wire diameter (outer diameter) is about 0.1 to 0.5 mm, and in the case of a nylon wire with abrasive grains, the wire diameter is about 0.5 to 1.5 mm. The particle size may be about 60-220.

Next, in the present embodiment, the overall shape of the cleaner head 2 is devised in accordance with the shape of the rim R of the wheel W. That is, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the cleaner head 2 is shaped like an abacus bead as a whole. That is, it has a shape corresponding to the whole of a lower portion obtained by cutting a conical shape at an intermediate height and connecting two bottom surfaces together.
As shown in FIG. 4, the cleaner head 2 has a mandrel 23. The mandrel 23 is coaxial with the abacus-shaped central axis. The head body 21 is cylindrical and coaxial with the abacus bead shape, and the mandrel 23 is fitted into the head body 21 and fixed. Therefore, the head main body 21 and the wire 22 can be rotated by rotating the mandrel 23. The “abacus bead shape” can be said to be the shape of a virtual surface formed by the tips of the wires 22 as can be seen from FIG.

  As described above, there is a problem that sag (plastic deformation) is liable to occur when it is necessary to use a somewhat soft wire 22. FIG. 4 (3) shows a preferred configuration for reducing this problem. . The cleaner head 2 shown in FIG. 4 (3) has a structure in which the base of the wire 22 is reinforced with a reinforcing tool 24. As the reinforcing tool 24, a ring-shaped member formed of a hard material such as metal is employed. A plurality of ring-shaped reinforcing tools 24 are provided at intervals along the length direction of the mandrel 23, and the wire 22 is planted therebetween. Since the root of the wire 22 is reinforced, it is difficult for sag to occur.

  The merit of the shape of the cleaner head 2 as shown in FIG. 4 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic side view showing a state in which foreign matter removal is performed using the cleaner head 2 shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the rim R includes a rim main body R1 connected to the spoke S, and a flange portion R2 that is bent and extends from both ends of the rim main body R1. Since the tire is mounted in a state of being sandwiched between the flange portions R2 on both sides, in particular, foreign matter in a portion connected to the flange portion R2 in the rim main body R1 (hereinafter referred to as a rim end portion, indicated by R3). If attached, it causes air leakage. Therefore, it is necessary to make the cleaner head 2 sufficiently contact at this portion. Hereinafter, the portion from the flange portion R2 of the rim R to the rim end portion R3 is hereinafter collectively referred to as a rim outer peripheral portion.

  The shape of the cleaner head 2 described above is such that it can sufficiently contact the outer periphery of the rim. In FIG. 5, for convenience of explanation, a corner portion where the flange portion R2 and the rim main body R1 are connected is referred to as a rim corner portion, and is indicated by R4. Moreover, the top part 201 of the middle part of the abacus shape of the cleaner head 2 is referred to as a middle part top part. When removing foreign matter, the cleaner head 2 is swung as will be described later, and the middle abdominal apex 201 is brought into contact with the rim corner R4 as indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. As can be seen from FIG. 5, according to the shape of the cleaner head 2 of the embodiment, the wire 22 of the cleaner head 2 is sufficiently applied to the surface of the outer periphery of the rim (flange R2, rim end R3, rim corner R4). Therefore, it is possible to sufficiently remove the foreign matter adhering to this problematic portion.

  As described above, the hardness of the wire 22 is carefully selected in consideration of various points, but the soft wire 22 may have an advantage. That is, as shown in an enlarged view in FIG. 5, when the tip of the wire 22 is soft, it bends along the surface of the outer periphery of the rim, so that the area rubbing the surface becomes larger or reaches the corner of the rim corner R4. There is an advantage that it becomes easy to do. When the tip of the wire 22 is soft, the degree to which the cleaner head 2 deforms in accordance with the surface shape of the rim outer peripheral portion when hitting the rim outer peripheral portion increases. For this reason, it is suitable when the difference between the surface shape of the rim outer peripheral portion and the shape of the cleaner head 2 is large (that is, the difference in shape is compensated).

Next, the head drive mechanism 3 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view of the head driving mechanism 3 mounted on the rim cleaner of the embodiment.
The head driving mechanism 3 is configured such that when the wheel W is rotated by the driving rollers 11 and 12, the cleaner head 2 is positioned and oriented as indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. In the present embodiment, the head driving mechanism 3 can come into contact with the rim R while rotating the cleaner head 2. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 6, the head drive mechanism 3 includes a head rotary power source 31 that connects the cleaner head 2 to the output shaft, and a swing crank 32 that holds the head rotary power source 31. And an oscillation drive source 33 for oscillating the cleaner head 2 via an oscillation crank 32.

As shown in FIG. 3, a horizontal base rod 34 is provided on the back panel 103 constituting the housing 102. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 6, one end of the swing crank 32 is attached to the base rod 34, and the swing crank 32 has a posture extending obliquely upward from the base rod 34. One end of the swing crank 32 has an opening through which the base rod 34 is inserted, and the swing crank 32 can rotate (swing) within a certain angle range with the base rod 34 as a rotation axis.
The swing crank 32 is bent slightly at the front side, and a holding arm 35 is provided at the tip. The holding arm 35 is provided via a rotation shaft (hereinafter referred to as a tip rotation shaft) 36 provided at the tip portion of the swing crank 32, and can be rotated (swing) by a certain angle around the tip rotation shaft 36. It has become. The distal end rotation shaft 36 is perpendicular to the direction in which the distal end portion of the swing crank 32 extends, and is also perpendicular to the direction in which the holding arm 35 extends.

A substantially U-shaped pedestal 37 is fixed to the tip of the holding arm 35, and the head rotational power source 31 is attached in a state of being fitted into the pedestal 37. The head rotational power source 31 is a cylindrical member as shown in FIG. 5, and is held by the holding arm 35 in an oblique posture (for example, about 45 degrees). The cleaner head 2 is also provided in a posture coaxial with the rotational power source 31 for the head, and therefore has the same oblique angle.
A spring member 38 and a stopper 39 are provided between the swing crank 32 and the holding arm 35. As shown in FIG. 5, a spring mounting rod 381 is fixed to the rear surface of the holding arm 35 (the rear surface when the side on which the cleaner head 2 is disposed is the front side) so as to extend rearward. Yes. On the other hand, a spring pedestal 382 is fixed to the lower surface of the tip portion of the swing crank 32, and a spring member 38 is provided so as to connect the spring pedestal 382 and the spring mounting bar 381. In the present embodiment, a coil spring is employed as the spring member 38.

  A stopper base rod 391 is fixed to the lower surface of the tip portion of the swing crank 32 at a position slightly behind the spring base 382. The stopper base rod 391 is fixed perpendicular to the direction in which the tip portion of the swing crank 32 extends. The stopper 39 is provided at the tip portion of the stopper base rod 391. The stopper 39 is a screw-shaped member. A screw hole is formed at the tip of the stopper base rod 391, and the stopper 39 extends forward through the screw hole.

On the other hand, the output shaft of the oscillating drive source 33 is connected to a substantially central position in the length direction of the oscillating crank 32. The swing drive source 33 is a front / rear drive source such as an air cylinder, and drives the output shaft back and forth. The swing drive source 33 is attached to the back panel 103 via a horizontal rotation shaft. Further, the output shaft of the swing drive source 33 is also connected to the swing crank 32 through a horizontal rotating shaft.
In the present embodiment, an air motor is used as the head rotational power source 31. The air motor is a motor that rotates an output shaft using compressed air as a power source. The head rotational power source 31 is held by the holding arm 35 and floats in the air, but a tube 311 for supplying compressed air is connected to the rear end.

The operation of the head driving mechanism 3 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a schematic side view illustrating the operation of the head driving mechanism 3. (1) in FIG. 7 shows a case where the cleaner head 2 is in a standby state, and (2) shows a state in which the cleaner head 2 is in contact with the rim R for removing foreign matter.
In the standby state shown in FIG. 7 (1), the output shaft of the swing drive source 33 is in the forward position, and is in a position where the swing crank 32 is pushed down. In this state, when an operation command is sent to the swing drive source 33, the swing drive source 33 moves the output shaft backward. As a result, the output shaft raises the swing crank 32, and the swing crank 32 swings around the base rod 34. As a result, the head rotational power source 31 and the cleaner head 2 held by the holding arm 35 are swung integrally. By adjusting the retract distance of the output shaft to a predetermined value, the width of the swing is adjusted, whereby the cleaner head 2 comes into contact with the rim R as shown in FIG.

  The contact pressure of the cleaner head 2 on the rim R is optimally adjusted according to the adhesion strength of foreign matter, the hardness of the wire 22 and the like. That is, since the adhesion strength of foreign matter is large and the hard wire 22 is used, for example, when the wire 22 is to be applied to the rim R to some extent, the receding distance of the output shaft is increased (the swing width is increased). The wire 22 is brought into contact with the rim R while being bent to a certain extent. When the wire 22 is weakly applied to the rim R for the purpose of preventing the outer surface of the rim from being damaged, the retracting distance of the output shaft is shortened (the swinging width is narrowed), and the deflection of the wire 22 is reduced. Then, the wire 22 is brought into contact with the rim R. Of course, the adjustment of the retreat distance of the output shaft can be performed by adjusting the pneumatic pressure of the air cylinder used as the swinging drive source 33.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the rim cleaner as described above is provided with an operation panel (not shown) on the side panel 107 of the housing 102 in FIG. Although a detailed description is omitted, the operation panel includes a main switch, an operation switch of the roller drive motor 15, an operation switch of the head rotational power source 31, an operation switch of the swing drive source 33, and an output of the swing drive source 33. An adjustment knob for the retraction distance of the shaft is provided. The rim cleaner has a control unit that controls each unit, and an operation signal is input to the control unit from each switch and adjustment knob on the operation panel. The control unit controls each unit by sending a control signal to each unit according to the input signal.

The operation of the rim cleaner according to the present embodiment having the above configuration will be described below.
As described above, the wheel W for removing foreign matter is placed on the two drive rollers 11 and 12 and the rim R is positioned in a state where it is in contact with the stopper flanges 112 and 122. In this state, the pressing roller 13 is lowered and brought into contact with the wheel W, and the pressing roller 13 is fixed with a fixture. This completes the preparation for removing foreign matter. In this state, after the main switch is turned on, the operation switch of the roller drive motor 15 is turned on, and the roller drive motor 15 is operated. Thereby, the two drive rollers 11 and 12 rotate, and the wheel W also rotates in connection with this. The upper pressing roller 13 is driven and rotated while pressing the wheel W.

  Next, the operation switch of the head rotational power source 31 is turned on, and the head rotational power source 31 is operated. Thereby, the cleaner head 2 rotates. In this state, the operation switch of the oscillation drive source 33 is turned on, and the oscillation drive source 33 is operated. As a result, the swing crank 32 swings, and the rotating wire 22 of the cleaner head 2 comes into contact with the rim R. Thereby, the foreign matter adhering to the rim R is removed. At this time, the swing width by the swing drive source 33 is adjusted as described above, and the contact strength of the wire 22 with respect to the rim R is adjusted. Thereby, it is possible to sufficiently remove the foreign matter while preventing the rim R surface from being damaged.

The rotation of the wheel W is continued with the cleaner head 2 in contact with the rim R, and when it is determined that the foreign matter has been sufficiently removed, the swing drive source 33 is operated in the reverse direction to lower the swing crank 32, While returning to the standby position, the head rotational power source 31 is stopped. Then, the roller drive motor 15 is stopped to stop the rotation of the wheel W. Thereafter, the wheel W is placed in the opposite direction, and foreign matter removal is similarly performed on the outer peripheral portion of the rim on the opposite side.
The rotation of the cleaner head 2 by the head rotational power source 31 is opposite to the rotation of the wheel W by the drive rollers 11 and 12. This point will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, for example, when the wheel W rotates clockwise, the cleaner head 2 rotates counterclockwise. This is because the frictional force with which the cleaner head 2 rubs the surface of the rim R is increased. Even if the cleaner head 2 does not rotate and only the wheel W rotates, the foreign matter can be removed. The reason why the cleaner head 2 is rotated is to increase the frictional force (dynamic frictional force) and remove foreign matters efficiently.

  As can be seen from the above description, according to the rim cleaner of the present embodiment, the foreign matter is automatically removed by pressing the cleaner head 2 against the wheel W rotated by the drive rollers 11, 12, so that it is completely manual work. Compared to the conventional method of removing foreign matter, the labor is remarkably reduced. For this reason, the labor cost at the time of mounting | wearing a tire is prevented significantly, preventing an air leak.

In the present embodiment, a mechanism for finely adjusting the contact position of the cleaner head 2 with respect to the outer periphery of the rim is employed so that foreign matter can be sufficiently removed regardless of the size of the wheel W or the shape of the outer periphery of the rim. ing. This mechanism is constituted by a tip rotation shaft 36 for rotating the holding arm 35 described above, a spring member 38, a stopper 39, and the like. This point will be described with reference to FIGS. 2, 6 and 7.
FIG. 2 shows two wheels W having different diameters. As an example, in FIG. 2, the smallest wheel capable of removing foreign matter by the rim cleaner of the present embodiment is indicated by W as a solid line, and the largest wheel capable of removing foreign matter is indicated as W ′ by a two-dot chain line. Yes.

As shown in FIG. 2, when the wheel is placed on the two drive rollers 11 and 12, the position of the rim R at the lowest position (hereinafter referred to as the lower end position) is slightly different depending on the size of the wheel. That is, in the case of the wheel W having a small diameter, the lower end portion is positioned slightly lower, and in the case of the wheel W ′ having a large diameter, the lower end portion is positioned slightly lower. In the present embodiment, foreign matter removal is performed at the lower end of the rotating wheel, so the position of the cleaner head 2 needs to be changed slightly according to the size of the wheel.
The aforementioned rotation of the holding arm 35 and the presence of the spring and the stopper 39 are due to the fine adjustment displacement. In FIG. 6, for convenience of explanation, the swing of the swing crank 32 with the base rod 34 as the central axis is the swing in the AB direction, and the swing of the holding arm 35 with the tip rotation shaft 36 as the center is the CD. Oscillating in the direction.

As described above, the cleaner head 2 needs to be in sufficient contact with the outer periphery of the rim in order to remove the problematic foreign matter. The abacus bead shape of the wire 22 of the cleaner head 2 takes this point into consideration, and also considers that the outer periphery of the rim has an L-shaped cross section. In this case, the state in which the middle abdominal apex 201 of the cleaner head 2 hits the rim corner of the outer periphery of the rim has the largest contact area and is optimal. However, as described above, since the position of the lower end portion differs depending on the diameter of the wheel W, the position of the rim corner also differs depending on the diameter of the wheel W. Therefore, it is necessary to change the final arrangement position of the cleaner head 2 in accordance with the diameter of the wheel W for optimal contact.
In order to meet the above requirement, in the present embodiment, the cleaner head 2 is first brought into contact with the surface of the flange portion R2 in the outer peripheral portion of the rim, and the top surface 201 of the cleaner head 2 is brought into contact with the corner portion of the rim by sliding on the surface. I have to. That is, as shown in FIG. 7B, the swinging crank 32 swings in the direction A of the AB direction, and the cleaner head 2 comes into contact with the rim R. At this time, the mid-abdominal apex 201 is not in contact with the rim corner and is at a position slightly lower than the rim corner.

When the swing drive source 33 is further operated to apply a force in the direction of pulling up the swing crank 32, the cleaner head 2 is in contact with the surface of the flange portion of the rim R. The cleaner head 2 slightly displaces obliquely upward while sliding on the surface of the flange portion. That is, as can be seen from FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, since the cleaner head 2 is locked by the flange portion, even if the swinging crank 32 is pulled up in the direction A, the head rotational power source 31 and The cleaner head 2 is not displaced, but is displaced in the direction D in the CD direction against the elastic force of the spring member 38 by the force in the direction A, and the cleaner head 2 moves obliquely upward along the surface of the flange portion R2. Will do. As shown in FIG. 6, this movement occurs when the holding arm 35 rotates (oscillates) around the distal end rotation shaft 36. In other words, the head rotational power source 31 and the cleaner head 2 swing in the direction A by the swing of the swing crank 32 in the direction A, but after the cleaner head 2 comes into contact with the flange portion, the direction AB is reached. The swinging force is converted into the CD direction and swings in the direction D. As shown in FIG. 7 (3), the swing in the direction of D is caused when the mid-abdominal apex 201 of the cleaner head 2 abuts against the rim corner (that is, the tip side of the mid-abdominal apex 201 is the rim end). Stop by touching the part). As a result, the cleaner head 2 is positioned at the optimum position.
As described above, in this embodiment, the cleaner head 2 slides and moves on the surface of the flange portion R2, and the cleaner head 2 comes into contact with the corner portion of the rim outer peripheral portion. Regardless of the shape of the portion, a sufficient contact area is ensured, and foreign matter can be sufficiently removed.

In the above embodiment, it is obvious that the cross-sectional angle of the mid-abdominal apex 201 of the cleaner head 2 is adapted to the angle of the rim corner. That is, since the rim corner portion is substantially a right angle, the cross section of the middle abdominal apex portion 201 is also a substantially right angle. When the rim corner is an obtuse angle θ, the cross section of the middle abdominal apex 201 is also an obtuse angle substantially coincident with θ.
Further, the hardness of the wire 22 of the cleaner head 2 may be different depending on the portion of the outer peripheral portion of the rim that comes into contact. For example, the amount of foreign matter attached varies depending on the portion of the outer periphery of the rim, and there may be a portion where the amount of foreign matter is much attached or a portion where there is little foreign matter attached. Moreover, there may be a site | part with strong adhesion strength of a foreign material, and a weak site | part. In this case, the cleaner head 2 must be brought into strong contact with a portion where the amount of foreign matter is large or the strength of adhesion is high, whereas the portion where the amount of foreign matter is small or the strength of adhesion is low. Therefore, it is necessary to make the rim R contact weakly so as not to damage it. In the case of strong contact, since the wire 22 is consumed intensively, it is preferable that the wire 22 is hard, and the hard wire 22 can efficiently remove foreign matters having higher adhesion strength. On the other hand, a soft wire 22 should be used for a portion where the cleaner head 2 should be brought into weak contact. For this reason, the cleaner head 2 in which the hard wire 22 and the soft wire 22 are mixed may be used.

  As a more specific example, according to the inventor's research, the rim R of the wheel W, in particular, the rim R of the used wheel W (not new), the surface of the flange portion R2 of the rim outer peripheral portion. Is a large amount of foreign matter, and the surface of the rim end R3 has a relatively small amount of foreign matter. Therefore, it is better to make the wire 22 in contact with the surface of the flange portion R2 harder and soften the wire 22 in contact with the surface of the rim end R3. That is, in the shape of the cleaner head 2 shown in FIG. 4, it is preferable that the lower half wire 22 near the head rotational power source 31 is hardened and the upper half wire 22 on the opposite side is softened.

In the above embodiment, the drive rollers 11 and 12 for rotating the wheel W are disposed on the lower side and the driven pressing roller 13 is disposed on the upper side, but this may be reversed. That is, the wheel W may be supported by two driven rollers, and the wheel W may be rotated while being pressed by the driving roller from above. Further, one of the two lower rollers may be a driving roller, and the remaining may be a driven roller.
Furthermore, the number of rollers is not limited to three, and four or more rollers may be used. At least one roller in contact may be a driving roller. It is also possible to hold the wheel W through a bearing by inserting a shaft through the center of the wheel W. In this case, if no bearing is provided and the shaft rotates while gripping the wheel W, a structure in which no roller is used can be used. Alternatively, some driven rollers may be provided around to stabilize the rotation of the wheel W.

Moreover, the structure which does not provide the pressing roller 13 depending on the case is also considered. That is, depending on the weight of the wheel W, it may be stabilized by its own weight only by being placed on the two drive rollers 11 and 12, and even if it is rotated, it may rotate stably without any particular lifting. In such a case, the pressing roller 13 is unnecessary and may not be provided.
Note that when the wheel W is held and rotated by a roller without using a shaft, two or three or more rollers are required. However, if a shaft is used, the mechanism becomes large, and it may be attached to a car. Since the wheel W is attached to the shaft before, there is a troublesome consideration in order to avoid scratches in the case of a new wheel W. It is preferable to rotate the wheel W only by the roller because there is no such problem.

  Further, the rotation of the wheel W and the rotation of the cleaner head 2 have been described in the opposite directions. However, when the frictional force is to be weakened for the purpose of preventing the rim R from being damaged, the rotation may be a forward rotation. . In addition, the rotation of the wheel W may be to remove foreign matter evenly in the circumferential direction of the rim R, but this rotation may be slow and may be manual rotation. In other words, the cleaner W 2 and the head driving mechanism 3 may be provided as described above to remove the foreign matter while the wheel W is held by the shaft via the bearing and can be manually rotated. . Therefore, the “rotating mechanism for rotating the wheel” is a concept including a case of holding the wheel while allowing manual rotation. Further, as an opposite configuration, only the wheel W may be rotated and the cleaner head 2 may not be rotated. In this case, only the wheel W is rotated at a high speed, and the cleaner head 2 is brought into weak contact to remove foreign matter.

In addition to the above-described movements (swings and displacements) of the cleaner head 2 for sufficiently contacting the rim outer peripheral part, various kinds of movements can be considered. This point will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 8 is a diagram schematically showing various configurations of the movement of the cleaner head 2.
In the above-described example, the cleaner head 2 swings around a horizontal axis and rises, approaches the outer periphery of the rim, contacts the cleaner head 2 and then slides on the surface of the flange portion R2. The head rotational power source 31 is displaced obliquely upward. As another configuration, for example, as shown in FIG. 8 (1), the cleaner head 2 and the head rotational drive source move linearly upward at an angle of 45 degrees, and the mid-abdominal apex 201 is moved directly to the rim corner. The structure which contacts may be sufficient. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 8 (2), the cleaner head 2 and the rotational power source 31 for the head rise vertically while maintaining the oblique 45 degree posture, and the cleaner head 2 is brought into contact with the surface of the rim end R3. After that, the configuration may be such that the middle top 201 of the cleaner head 2 is brought into contact with the rim corner by being displaced horizontally.

  Moreover, as a structure of the cleaner head 2, things other than the wire 22 mentioned above according to the foreign material which should be removed, the surface state of the rim | limb R, etc. can be used suitably. For example, the cleaner head 2 can be formed by attaching a sheet-like member having irregularities on the surface to an abacus-like base material. In this case, a sandpaper or a similar member is used as the sheet-like member, but the roughness of the unevenness is the adhesion strength of the foreign matter to be removed, the strength of the surface of the rim R (durability), etc. As appropriate. In addition, what formed the unevenness | corrugation directly on the surface of the abacus-shaped member may be used as the cleaner head 2.

As the overall shape of the cleaner head 2, the abacus bead shape described above is most suitable in consideration of the fact that the outer peripheral portion of the rim is an L-shaped section and comes into contact with the outer peripheral portion of the rim while rotating. Other shapes can also be employed. Hereinafter, this point will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 is a schematic view showing various shapes of the cleaner head 2.
FIG. 9A is an example of a more preferable shape of the cleaner head for more completely removing foreign matters. The abacus bead-shaped cleaner head shown in FIG. 5 is adapted to the shape of the outer periphery of the rim, and is suitable for sufficiently removing foreign matter. It was found that foreign matter remained on the lower edge of the surface (hereinafter referred to as the flange lower edge and indicated by reference numeral R5 in FIG. 9). The shape shown in FIG. 9 (1) is devised so that foreign matter can be sufficiently removed from the flange lower edge R5. As shown here, the cleaner head 2 has a substantially abacus bead shape, but the end on the rear end side is slightly bulged outward. That is, the bulging portion 25 is provided on the rear end side. A shape having such a bulging portion 25 is preferable because foreign matter remaining on the flange lower edge R5 can be eliminated.

  Moreover, the cone-shaped cleaner head 2 which cut | disconnected the front-end | tip as shown in FIG. 9 (2) can be used. In this case, first, for example, the foreign matter is removed by contacting the surface of the flange portion R2, and then the foreign matter is removed by contacting the surface of the rim end portion R3. The head driving mechanism 3 is a mechanism that displaces the cleaner head 2 so as to sequentially contact the surface of the outer peripheral portion of the rim. Compared to this configuration, it can be seen that the configuration of the above embodiment is preferable in that foreign matter can be removed from the flange portion R2 and the rim end portion R3 at the same time.

Further, in the case of removing the foreign matter without rotating the wheel W and rotating the cleaner head 2, the cleaner head 2 having a shape as shown in FIG. 9 (3) can be used. This configuration corresponds to a shape in which the cleaner head 2 shown in FIG. 4 is cut in half along the central axis. This configuration also has an advantage that foreign matter can be removed from the flange portion R2 and the rim end portion R3 at the same time. In the shapes of FIGS. 9 (2) and (3), it is also preferable to provide a bulging portion on the rear end side as in the shape of (1) to prevent foreign matter from remaining on the lower edge of the flange.
If the cleaner head 2 is sequentially moved, a cleaner head 2 having a shape as shown in FIG. 9 (4) may be employed. In the case of this FIG. 9 (4), the freedom degree of the shape of the cleaner head 2 is the largest, and any shape may be used as long as it can contact the flange portion R2 and the rim end portion R3.

  Furthermore, it is not necessary to have only one cleaner head 2, and two or more cleaner heads 2 may be used simultaneously to increase efficiency. For example, three to four sets of the cleaner head 2 and the head rotational power source 31 are prepared, and the head driving mechanism 3 is configured so as to be arranged at equal intervals in the circumferential direction of the rim R. In this way, since the plurality of cleaner heads 2 act simultaneously, the foreign substance removal can be completed in a short time (while the total number of rotations of the wheel W is small).

  As described above, according to the rim cleaner of the present invention, since the foreign matter is removed by the cleaner head coming into contact with the rim of the rotating wheel, compared to the conventional case where the foreign matter has been completely removed by hand, The labor is remarkably reduced. Therefore, its industrial applicability is remarkable.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Rotating mechanism 11 Driving roller 12 Driving roller 13 Pressing roller 15 Roller driving motor 2 Cleaner head 22 Wire rod 3 Head driving mechanism 31 Head rotational power source 32 Oscillating crank 33 Oscillating driving source 4 Vertical movement mechanism

Claims (11)

A rim cleaner that removes foreign matter adhering to the rim of the wheel,
A rotation mechanism that rotates the wheel;
A cleaner head,
A rim cleaner comprising a head driving mechanism for removing foreign matter by bringing a cleaner head into contact with a rim of a rotating wheel. The rim cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the rotation mechanism is capable of rotating wheels having different sizes. The rim cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the rotation mechanism includes two drive rollers that rotate while supporting the wheel on the lower side. The rotating mechanism includes at least three rollers that contact the circumferential surface of the wheel to hold the wheel, and at least one of the rollers is a driving roller that rotates the wheel by a frictional force. The rim cleaner according to claim 1 or 2. The rim cleaner according to claim 4, wherein at least one of the rollers is displaceable according to a size of the wheel. The rim cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the head driving mechanism is configured to contact the rim while rotating the cleaner head. 7. The rim cleaner according to claim 1, wherein the head driving mechanism is a mechanism capable of displacing the cleaner head for position adjustment in a state where the cleaner head is in contact with the rim. The rim cleaner according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the cleaner head has an abacus shape. 9. The rim cleaner according to claim 8, wherein in the abacus-shaped rim cleaner, the angle of the cross section of the mid-abdominal apex is adapted to the angle formed by the flange portion of the rim. The rim cleaner according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the cleaner head is composed of a head main body and a large number of wires embedded in the head main body. The rim cleaner according to claim 10, wherein the plurality of wires have different hardness depending on a portion of the rim that comes into contact.

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