Good Article on Future of Balancing/Mounting

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http://www.moderntiredealer.com/article/story/2013/02/the-future-of-mounting-and-balancing.aspx

Some excerpts:

"...........Michael Alusick, worldwide product manager for undercar products, Snap-on Equipment Division of Snap-on Inc.: “Precision wheel centering to achieve accurate wheel balance is possibly the most neglected, yet most important part of successful wheel balancing......."

"..............Jon Barganier, vice president of sales, Allpart Supply Inc.:....................."Unfortunately, the standard equipment for a lot of shops is a cone and a plastic pressure cup. The procedure is less precise, and when the cup touches the wheel, it can damage it.....................Bottom line, front coning is a no-no, yet it’s still a common practice............"

"Derek Forney, marketing coordinator, International Marketing Inc. (IMI):..............'Static wheel weights can’t achieve an adaptive balance, even if tires are rebalanced regularly........................Wheel weight manufacturers have focused mostly on the green initiative in recent years. However, the adaptive balance feature in both the commercial and consumer markets can be found in XACTBalance, a stick-on weight that balances dynamically through free-moving steel particles............”

Kevin Keefe, vice president of marketing, Hennessy Industries Inc............“As automotive manufacturers continue to shift to flangeless wheel designs, I would expect to see ongoing innovations in the adhesive weight product category focused on reducing cycle time and achieving more one-spin adhesive weight balances.”
 
Those cones get pretty beat up where they interface with common diameters. They're also expensive for what you get.
 
Quote:
balances dynamically
This is with beads inside the tire or beads contained in a ring mounted on the wheel. With a spring suspension the wheel wants to rotate around its center of balance, not its geometric center. When unbalanced and rotating around the center of balance (CoB), the light side will be farther away from the CoB with the balancing beads thrown to the light side by centrifugal force. This works well with high aspect ratio tires...75 & higher...but can be used to fine tune lower aspect ratio tires that have conventional balance weights on the rim. The Centramatic web site has a good video showing how the concept works. A variety of products is used. I use Dynabeads in my motorcycle tires. Ride-On is a combination leak sealer and balancing product in a viscous liquid. Some think that the Dynabeads are actually small diameter (about 0.2 mm) zirconium oxide ball grinding media to get hard, durable, very high specific gravity beads. Anyway, they work.

The local tire shop does the usual sloppy balancing job. I wanted some RV trailer tires balanced. Trailer wheels (and everything else on a trailer) are as cheaply made as possible with the center pilot hole punched out close to the true center, not machined in the true center. Trying to get the morons in the tire shop to see how the wheel was off center, and how it needed a lug-centered adapter was impossible. They balanced it smoothly on the off center pilot hole and gave it to me for nothing when I stood there and tried to show their blank faces how eccentric it was. Balancing is always done quick & easy on the centering cone without a close look at anything.
 
I run centramatics on our Semis. Very good investment, especially with truck tires over $500 each now for good ones.
 
As a tire engineer, I've always struggled with these balancing compounds and devices. Watch this video and I'll explain:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ullnFQD4F1I

First, notice there is a little red tab visible below the spinning tire. That's part of the framework behind the tire.

In the first run, it is absolutely motionless.

In the second run - where the magnet is attached to unblanace the assembly - the red tab is vibrating furiously.

Then in the third run - where they add the device - the tab is still vibrating - not a lot, but it's obvious the device hasn't completely balanced the assembly. More importantly, the assembly was better BEFORE.

So my conclusion is that these devices are NOT better. - That they do NOT do what they say they are supposed to do.
 
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