to the SmartWeight Tire Training Presentation

HUNTER Engineering Company
New Wheel Balancing Method
Based In Absolute Force Calculations
Eliminating Significant Operating Costs and Improving the Dynamic Balance
by Revisiting Wheel Balancing Basics
“This Changes Everything….Except the Same Smooth Ride”
SLIDE 1
What is SmartWeight™?
• SmartWeight is a very basic yet revolutionary and patented concept which
changes the way wheels are balanced.
• For almost 30 years, all balancers have calculated imbalance the same way.
SmartWeight is a completely new wheel balancing method. It is not merely
based on correction weight reduction to ‘zeroes’, but is based in absolute
force correction and the optimal use of correction weight to eliminate vibration.
• SmartWeight reduces the significant operating
expense of wasted correction weight and the
unnecessary labor time spent attaching weight
which is not needed. It also improves
balancing results and solves vibration problems.
This sounds impossible, but it can be proven
on any vehicle. Try it!
• SmartWeight is the first balancing business case
which exclusively reduces balancing service costs
and increases profit margins. This new capability is
unlike any wheel balancer ever introduced.
SLIDE 2
SmartWeight Reviewed by OEMs and Tire Manufacturers
* BMW North America
Montvale, NJ
* Bridgestone Firestone USA
Akron, OH and Nashville, TN
* Cooper Tire Company
Findley, OH
* Daimler-Chrysler AG
Detroit, MI
* Ford Motor Company
Detroit, MI
* General Motors Corporation
Milford Proving Grounds
* Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company
Akron, OH
* Honda America Motor Company
Torrence, CA
* HUMMER/Ricardo Detroit Tech Campus, Inc.
Van Buren Twp, MI
* Hyundai Motor America
Fountain Valley
* Mazda North America Operations
Irvine, CA
* Mercedes Benz
Germany & North America
* Michelin North America
Greeneville, SC
* Micro Poise / Akron Standard-ITW
Akron, OH
* Nissan USA
Torrence, CA
* Roush Industries
Detroit, MI
* Toyo Tires USA
Cypress, CA
* Toyota USA
Torrence, CA
* Volkswagen-Audi
Germany & North America
* Volvo North America
Rockleigh, NJ
SLIDE 3
Wheel
Balancing
– Yesterday
Current
Wheel
Balancing
Issues
Traditional computerized “dynamic” wheel balancing has remained basically
unchanged for 30 years. To understand why it has become outdated, take a
look at the type of wheels and tires that existed when computerized “dynamic”
wheel balancers were introduced.
The average types of wheels balanced in the 70’s and 80’s were:
• 13”-15” diameter and 5.0”-7.0” wide.
• Virtually all balanced with clip-weight wheel flange correction.
• All about the same average tire size and similar weight.
• Balanced with uncoated lead correction weight with very low cost.
SLIDE 4
Wheel Balancing – Today
…..today the types of tire and wheel applications have proliferated.
• Wheels diameters range from 13” to 30”. The wheel widths now vary from
5.0” to over 15” wide.
• Tire sizes and assembly weight varies dramatically and are now heavier
which increases the amount of balance weight required.
• Flangeless wheel designs are proliferating. Rim flanges are no longer used
for correction weight, thus creating smaller distances apart from each weight
which dramatically increases the amount of weight when making ‘couple’
balancing correction.
Tires and wheels today have changed dramatically, and so have the technical
requirements required to balance them properly. Until SmartWeight, the same
dynamic balancing calculations have been used in balancers which were
introduced in the 70’s and 80’s when these types of wheels did not exist.
SLIDE 5
Wheel Balancing – Today
• Many styles of clip-weight and expensive
adhesive tape weights continue to
proliferate due to changing wheel designs
and minimal industry standardization.
• Cost of wheel weights are quickly
becoming much more expensive. Lead
material costs have increased +50% since
mid-2004.
When balanced, the average vehicle contains
at least eight wheel weights.
• Lead usage is quickly becoming restricted
and the alternative materials such as Zinc,
steel and sintered polymers are much more
costly to do the same job.
SLIDE 6
Wheel
Balancing
Facts
Current
Wheel
Balancing
Issues
The average tire dealer:
• Uses well over 2000 pounds of balance weight per year.
• Spends well over $10,000.00 on balance weight per year.
• Is unable to adjust quickly to the rising costs and therefore the cost
increases are eroding profit margins.
• Often adds the price of a wheel balance into the cost of the tire
sale, regardless of tire-wheel application..
Circle-Bar Tire Service
SLIDE 7
Wheel Balancing Facts
A wheel balancer operator:
• Often wastes materials by using too much correction weight.
• Often wastes time by encountering repeated check spins in order to
get the balanced wheel to “zero out”.
• Often risks comebacks due to incorrect assumptions created by the
balancer software which hides residual imbalance when the balancer
reads “zero”.
• Often finds ways to defeat the dynamic balancing functions and
unknowingly performs a poor service by static balancing alone.
SLIDE 8
Changing
(Understanding
CurrentIncorrect
WheelAssumptions
Balancing
Issues SmartWeight)
Correction Weight Commonly Confused
with Imbalance Forces
Many incorrectly consider imbalance in terms of correction weight which
is independent of its location on the wheel, instead of the actual static
and couple forces. As the forces remain constant, the size of the
imbalance weight changes as the weight locations are moved to
different distances and diameters.
Static and couple forces are viewed
with bar graphs. The dotted red lines are
the threshold at which the forces
will cause a vibration.
SLIDE 9
Changing Incorrect Assumptions (Understanding SmartWeight)
Correction Weight Commonly Confused
with Imbalance Forces
Static Correction Weight & Static Force
Its important to understand that small changes in weight make large
and significant changes in the static force. As a result, small amounts
of static correction weight greatly affect the level of vibration felt inside
the vehicle.
…….. correction weight of the imbalance changes
in distance and/or diameter by relocating
them to a new position on the wheel.
The two forces of the imbalance
are constant if the…
SLIDE 10
Changing Incorrect Assumptions (Understanding SmartWeight)
Correction Weight Commonly Confused
with Imbalance Forces
Couple Correction Weight & Couple Force
Unlike static correction weight, when couple correction weight is placed
close together, large changes in couple weight create small changes in the
couple force. As a result, large amounts of couple correction weight placed
close together (equal sized weights placed 180º apart) have little effect on
the level of vibration felt inside the vehicle.
…….. correction weight of the imbalance changes
in distance and/or diameter.
The two forces of the imbalance
are constant as the…
SLIDE 11
Changing Incorrect Assumptions (Understanding SmartWeight)
Before SmartWeight, all computer balancer’s used the logic of “fixed
correction weight rounding” which was designed to eliminate all static
and couple forces regardless of the force’s magnitude. This is not
wrong, however because the rounding was fixed and often the weights
are now closer together, large amounts of ‘couple’ correction weight are
often unnecessarily added to the wheel when the couple force is
insignificant and will not cause a vibration.
The logic of “fixed correction weight rounding”
and treating both forces with equal importance
results in lost labor time and wasted wheel weight
while it attempts to eliminate inconsequential forces
that are not great enough to cause a vibration
when placed on a vehicle.
SLIDE 12
Wheel
Balancing
– Current
ProblemsIssues
Current
Wheel
Balancing
Shown in the two examples below, the same wheel balanced one time
shows two different weight readings based on the varying weight
locations chosen.
The balancer display shows ‘zero’ weight at the clip-weight locations.
When the weight locations are changed to adhesive tape-on weight
locations much closer together, the balancer then recalculates huge
amounts of weight required. This is a “riddle” that frustrates many
operators, wastes weight and also makes the balancer
unnecessarily ‘hyper-sensitive” to tape-weight use.
Assuming the wheel on the left is properly balanced with clip-weight, then why does the same wheel
on the right require two additional weights which are approximately equal and 180º apart ? The
answer is the traditional balancing weight shown is not needed, a waste of labor time and a waste of
correction weight.
SLIDE 13
Traditional Wheel Balancing Issues
Fixed Weight Rounding Assigned to Each Balancer Plane
Can Hide Excessive Residual Static Imbalance
When correction weights used to balance each plane are used near the
same phase angle and the balance correction is rounded to “zero”,
a blinded static residual error may remain hidden
and create a vibration on the vehicle.
Residual Dynamic Display After Correction
Residual Static Display After Same Correction
The balancer showing ‘zero’ weight required
is traditional two plane weight ‘rounding’
and hiding residual imbalance.
The same balance shows hidden residual
static weight which is too high and can cause
vehicle vibration and NVH complaints.
SLIDE 14
Traditional Correction Weight vs. Force Limitations
Wheel balancers have measured the imbalance forces of the wheel since the
1970’s, but have not utilized them efficiently because:
– Limitation #1 - Wheel balancers before SmartWeight placed no limits
on the forces of couple (shimmy) and static (shake).
No threshold has been placed on the actual imbalance forces
independently of each other measured in the tire and wheel.
– Limitation #2 - Equal importance has been improperly placed on
couple and static imbalance forces. Equal importance is not necessary.
Example: All vehicles tolerate more than a 4:1 ratio of couple to static
correction weight (based on reference wheel of 15”x6” wheel at
clip-weight locations) without vibration complaints.
– Limitation #3 - All wheel balancers before SmartWeight have applied
a fixed weight tolerance to the correction weight regardless of the
weight location chosen; instead of placing limits on the imbalance forces
and adjusting the weight tolerance as needed.
SLIDE 15
What is SmartWeight™ Balancing?
New “Corrected” Logic of SmartWeight
1. This new method of balancing computes correction weight based
on the absolute static (shake) and absolute couple (shimmy) forces
independently of each other.
2. This new method of balancing computes independent force limits
based on the amount of imbalance forces which are known to
induce excessive vibration on the vehicle. The force limits are set
below the most sensitive guidelines as specified by the vehicle
manufacturers.
SLIDE 16
What is SmartWeight™ Balancing?
3. In addition to traditional correction weight rounding, all
SmartWeight force limits and thresholds are accessible and
programmable, however the preset factory default works well
on even the most sensitive vehicles.
4. Force limits can be adjusted up or down automatically during the
spin and are based on the mass (inertia) of the tire/wheel during the
balance spin. This eliminates having to artificially raise correction
weight rounding and performs a better dynamic correction.
(Excessive residual static error is commonly encountered in truck
wheel balancing due to correction weight rounding)
5. Using the default settings of SmartWeight, over 30% of wheels
balanced will shift from a two plane dynamic correction to a single
plane dynamic correction. This saves time while audits and reduces
the couple force while optimizing the complete cancellation of static
force.
SLIDE 17
What is SmartWeight™ Balancing?
The New “Corrected” Logic of SmartWeight
• SmartWeight audits each vibration force in the same manner the vehicle
manufacturers calculate the individual effects and thresholds of static and
couple forces.
• SmartWeight correction weight reduces the couple force and virtually
eliminates the static force. It does not merely display correction weight which is
designed to cancel both forces regardless of magnitude and importance to
vehicle vibration.
• Traditional fixed weight rounding is obsolete and use of correction weight
alone ignores the differing effects on static and couple forces. SmartWeight
adjusts the weight rounding and amount based to reduce or eliminate each
force independently.
• A simple way to explain SmartWeight is "if the two balance forces which cause
a vibration are not exceeded, then the correction weight is not needed.”
SLIDE 18
What is SmartWeight™ Balancing?
This is the first computerized off-car balancer
introduced which displays a bar graph representation of
actual static and couple forces independent of correction
weight dimension entry.
SLIDE 19
Traditional Balancing vs. SmartWeight™ Balancing
SLIDE 20
Traditional Balancing vs. SmartWeight™ Balancing
Traditional Displays
SmartWeight™ Display
Fixed correction weight “rounding” to “zero” and the fixed “round-off” mode are no longer
needed with SmartWeight.
SLIDE 21
Traditional Balancing vs. SmartWeight™ Balancing
Traditional Displays
SmartWeight™ Displays
Assuming the wheel balanced to “zero” with clip-weights as shown, why does the same balance
with tape-on weight require two additional weights when the dimensions are changed? This
illustrates the problem with 30 year old traditional balancing methods used on today’s wheels.
In SmartWeight mode with the wheel balanced in clip-weight mode, it is also balanced in the tapeweight mode because the forces have remain unchanged and are below tolerance.
SLIDE 22
SmartWeight
™ Balancing
Limits
Current Wheel
Balancing
Issues
This setup screen shows the traditional Non-SmartWeight fixed ‘blind or rounding’ versus the
SmartWeight method that no longer uses fixed values and correction weight alone. The actual forces
are independently analyzed and correction weight is assigned to resolve each force individually.
SLIDE 23
SmartWeight
™ Weight Savings
Current Wheel
Balancing
Issues
SLIDE 24
SmartWeight™ Balancing
• Significantly Save on Rising Wheel Weight Costs
• Significantly Reduce Labor Costs
• Significantly Increase Balancer Ease of Use
• Eliminate Short Cuts that Affect Balance Quality
• Perform a Better Overall Balance
SmartWeight™ is the Smarter Way to Balance Wheels
HUNTER Engineering Company
11250 Hunter Drive
Bridgeton, MO 63044-2391 USA
314.731.0000
www.weightsaver.com
www.hunter.com
SLIDE 25