An apparatus and method for mounting a valve stem to the rim of an automotive
vehicle wheel includes rims being supplied in series by a conveyor to a gauging
station where the type and/or size of the rim and the location and alignment of
an aperture for receiving the valve stem is determined by a machine vision system.
An electronic control system directs a robotic manipulator to grasp either the
valve stem or the rim, move the valve stem or the rim to a mounting station, position
the valve stem or the rim with respect to the other such that the aperture in the
rim is in coaxial alignment with the valve stem, and insert the valve stem through
the aperture in the rim. If necessary, a power-actuated nut runner, mounted on
the robotic manipulator or adjacent the mounting station, is used to tighten a
nut over the valve stem. As an alternative to the machine vision system, the gauging
station can use a rotating table which rotates the wheel about a central axis,
and an "electric eye" optical sensor directing a beam of infrared light onto the
rim. As the rim rotates through the beam, the presence or lack of a reflection
of the light beam is used to detect the location of the aperture, and rotation
of the table is stopped when the aperture is in alignment with the beam. A probe
mounted on the gauging station can be extended to project into the aperture to
confirm that the aperture is at the desired position and reposition the rim slightly
to provide a precise positioning of the aperture.
