Patent Application
20150224562
Vehicle wheels typically have an aperture or hole for receiving a valve stem to allow inflation and deflation of a tire mounted to the wheel. Original equipment manufacturers offer a wide range of wheels across vehicle model lines, including different materials. The use of different materials for various wheel designs has resulted in a proliferation of valve hole parameters. More specifically, wheels using one material, e.g., aluminum, may require a greater thickness in support areas of a wheel, compared with wheels using an inherently stronger material, e.g., steel. Accordingly, valve holes may have different dimensions or other configurations.
The different valve hole configurations have resulted in a number of different interfaces for the valve stem assemblies. As valve stem assemblies have become more complex in recent years, e.g., by incorporating electronics such as tire pressure monitoring systems, manufacturers have sought to reduce the number of different configurations to allow reducing costs through greater economies of scale. For example, some types of tire pressure monitoring systems generally require a consistent thickness of an aperture at an interface where the valve stem is secured to the valve hole. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a same thickness across the different wheel designs to allow use of a single valve stem design in each of the different designs. The different valve hole configurations of the different wheels, however, have contributed to greater complexity and increased costs as a result of the different interfaces required for the different wheel designs.
Accordingly, there is a need for a vehicle wheel system and associated method of making the same that addresses the above disadvantages.
Various exemplary illustrations described herein are directed to a method of making a wheel, including stamping a wheel blank, and forming a lip extending about a periphery of an aperture defined by the wheel blank. The aperture may be configured to receive a valve stem. The method may further include refining the lip about the periphery of the aperture. The lip may define an axial thickness greater than a baseline thickness of the wheel blank adjacent the aperture.
In some exemplary approaches, a method further includes providing a second wheel blank having a second aperture configured to receive a valve stem. The second aperture may define an axial thickness greater than the baseline thickness of the first wheel blank, while the lip axial thickness of the first wheel blank is substantially equal to axial thickness of the second aperture.
While the claims are not limited to the illustrated embodiments, an appreciation of various aspects is best gained through a discussion of various examples thereof. Referring now to the drawings, illustrative embodiments are shown in detail. Although the drawings represent the embodiments, the drawings are not necessarily to scale and certain features may be exaggerated to better illustrate and explain an innovative aspect of an embodiment. Further, the embodiments described herein are not intended to be exhaustive or otherwise limiting or restricting to the precise form and configuration shown in the drawings and disclosed in the following detailed description. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described in detail by referring to the drawings as follows.
Turning now to
The rim portion 104 generally defines an aperture or valve hole 106. As will be described further below, valve hole 106 may generally receive a valve stem (not shown in
The lip 108 may generally include a refined or smooth surface along at least a portion of the perimeter of the valve hole 106. For example, the lip 108 generally defines an offset surface 110 which is spaced away from a baseline surface 112. The offset surface 110 may be refined or smoothed, as will be described further below, such that the surface 110 is generally free of burrs or edges that might otherwise damage a valve stem received within the aperture 106 and/or lip 108. In one exemplary illustration, a refining operation such as a coining process may generally work upon the offset surface 110 and/or the backside surface 112 of the wheel 100. The offset surface 110 and baseline surface 112 generally define an axial thickness D1 corresponding to a thickness of the lip 108. The axial thickness D1 may be larger with respect to a baseline thickness D2 of the rim portion 104 of the wheel 100. Thickness D2 may be generally equivalent to a sheetmetal thickness of a stamped sheet used in forming the wheel 100 and/or rim portion 104 thereof.
Turning now to
Turning now to
Referring now to
Referring now to
Turning now to
Turning now to
Proceeding to block 504, a lip may be formed in the first wheel blank. For example, as described above a piercing and/or flaring operation may be used to generally form a lip 108 extending about the perimeter of the valve hole 106. Process 500 may then proceed to block 506.
At block 506, the lip 108 may be refined about the perimeter of the valve hole 106. The lip may be refined in any manner such that the offset surface 110 is generally smoothed such that interference with a valve stem 302 is reduced or eliminated. For example, refinement of the lip 108 may generally remove sharp edges or burrs, e.g., as may result from the piercing operation used to form the valve hole 106, which may otherwise damage the valve stem 302. The lip 108 may be refined in any manner that is convenient. In one exemplary illustration, a coining operation is used to generally smooth offset surface 110. In another example, as described above a refining process generally smooths a surface by removing burrs, edges, or other surface discontinuities that might otherwise damage wheel components such as a valve stem extending through an aperture of the wheel. In another example, a coining operation generally work upon one or more surfaces of lip 108 to remove burrs. While a coining operation may be advantageous as it works in a substantially uniform manner along the surface(s) of the lip 108, any other process may be employed that is convenient. In another example, a plastic flow may be induced along the surface of the wheel blank 100′ adjacent the valve hole 106. The induced plastic flow of the sheet steel material along the surface of the wheel blank 100′ may generally refine the surface, e.g. offset surface 110 and/or an interior surface of the lip 108, thereby removing any sharp edges or burrs, which might otherwise interfere with or damaged the valve stem 302.
Proceeding to block 508, a valve stem may be installed. For example, as described above a valve stem assembly 300 may be installed to the valve hole 106. The valve stem assembly 300 may generally be a snap in the style valve stem assembly 300, which generally simplifies installation. For example, as described above, the valve stem assembly may have abutting shoulders 308 and 310 that generally interface with baseline surface 112 and offset surface 110 of the lip 108. Process 500 may then proceed to block 510.
At block 510, a second wheel may be provided. For example, wheel 200 may be formed or otherwise provided in any manner that is convenient. As noted above, the wheel 200 may have a baseline thickness D4 that is greater than a baseline thickness D2 of the first wheel 100. At the same time, an axial thickness D3 associated with the wheel 200 is substantially equal to the first wheel axial thickness D1. Accordingly, installation of a same valve stem assembly 300, or at least valve stem assemblies having substantially the same mounting thicknesses, in each of the wheels 100, and 200 is possible. Process 500 may then terminate.
In some exemplary approaches, the exemplary methods described herein may employ a computer or a computer readable storage medium implementing the various methods and processes described herein, e.g., process 500. In general, computing systems and/or devices, such as the processor and the user input device, may employ any of a number of computer operating systems, including, but by no means limited to, versions and/or varieties of the Microsoft Windows® operating system, the Unix operating system (e.g., the Solaris® operating system distributed by Oracle Corporation of Redwood Shores, Calif.), the AIX UNIX operating system distributed by International Business Machines of Armonk, N.Y., the Linux operating system, the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems distributed by Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., and the Android operating system developed by the Open Handset Alliance.
Computing devices generally include computer-executable instructions, where the instructions may be executable by one or more computing devices such as those listed above. Computer-executable instructions may be compiled or interpreted from computer programs created using a variety of programming languages and/or technologies, including, without limitation, and either alone or in combination, Java™, C, C++, Visual Basic, Java Script, Perl, etc. In general, a processor (e.g., a microprocessor) receives instructions, e.g., from a memory, a computer-readable medium, etc., and executes these instructions, thereby performing one or more processes, including one or more of the processes described herein. Such instructions and other data may be stored and transmitted using a variety of computer-readable media.
A computer-readable medium (also referred to as a processor-readable medium) includes any non-transitory (e.g., tangible) medium that participates in providing data (e.g., instructions) that may be read by a computer (e.g., by a processor of a computer). Such a medium may take many forms, including, but not limited to, non-volatile media and volatile media. Non-volatile media may include, for example, optical or magnetic disks and other persistent memory. Volatile media may include, for example, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which typically constitutes a main memory. Such instructions may be transmitted by one or more transmission media, including coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise a system bus coupled to a processor of a computer. Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, an EPROM, a FLASH-EEPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a computer can read.
Databases, data repositories or other data stores described herein may include various kinds of mechanisms for storing, accessing, and retrieving various kinds of data, including a hierarchical database, a set of files in a file system, an application database in a proprietary format, a relational database management system (RDBMS), etc. Each such data store is generally included within a computing device employing a computer operating system such as one of those mentioned above, and are accessed via a network in any one or more of a variety of manners. A file system may be accessible from a computer operating system, and may include files stored in various formats. An RDBMS generally employs the Structured Query Language (SQL) in addition to a language for creating, storing, editing, and executing stored procedures, such as the PL/SQL language mentioned above.
In some examples, system elements may be implemented as computer-readable instructions (e.g., software) on one or more computing devices (e.g., servers, personal computers, etc.), stored on computer readable media associated therewith (e.g., disks, memories, etc.). A computer program product may comprise such instructions stored on computer readable media for carrying out the functions described herein.
The exemplary wheels 100, 200 and associated process 500 generally allows the use of a same valve stem assembly 300 with vastly different wheel types. The use of a same or very similar valve stem assemblies 300 may result in economies of scale that reduce at least in part the overall cost of providing different wheel types.
The exemplary illustrations are not limited to the previously described examples. Rather, a plurality of variants and modifications are possible, which also make use of the ideas of the exemplary illustrations and therefore fall within the protective scope. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive.
With regard to the processes, systems, methods, heuristics, etc. described herein, it should be understood that, although the steps of such processes, etc. have been described as occurring according to a certain ordered sequence, such processes could be practiced with the described steps performed in an order other than the order described herein. It further should be understood that certain steps could be performed simultaneously, that other steps could be added, or that certain steps described herein could be omitted. In other words, the descriptions of processes herein are provided for the purpose of illustrating certain embodiments, and should in no way be construed so as to limit the claimed invention.
Accordingly, it is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Many embodiments and applications other than the examples provided would be upon reading the above description. The scope of the invention should be determined, not with reference to the above description, but should instead be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. It is anticipated and intended that future developments will occur in the arts discussed herein, and that the disclosed systems and methods will be incorporated into such future embodiments. In sum, it should be understood that the invention is capable of modification and variation and is limited only by the following claims.
All terms used in the claims are intended to be given their broadest reasonable constructions and their ordinary meanings as understood by those skilled in the art unless an explicit indication to the contrary in made herein. In particular, use of the singular articles such as “a,” “the,” “the,” etc. should be read to recite one or more of the indicated elements unless a claim recites an explicit limitation to the contrary.
