Item Info

Media Type: Photographic Prints
Source: Automobile Reference Collection
Notes:

From the GM Motorama exhibit at the left, designed to demonstrate the frictionless bearing, has evolved the machine at the right that balances automotive wheels and tires on a film of air at the Oldsmobile Division in Lansing, Mich. The Motorama exhibit featured a 15-inch plastic platter that rotates slowly on top of a column with nothing to support it but a microscopic air film. Using the same principles, GM Research Staff engineers developed the device on the right h that balances wheels and tires on a film of air about .002 of an inch think. Wheels with inflated tires move along a conveyor and are lowered onto an air-ball pivot. Sixty pounds of air pressure is supplied through vertical stems of the pivots so each tire and wheel is lifted on a cushion of air. When poised on the air-ball pivot, each wheel and tire naturally tilts towards it heavy or unbalance point. The machine automatically registers both the location and amount of imbalance and stamps the amount of imbalance on the wheel’s inside rim. The operator then puts the clamp weights on the “Light” side as the wheels pass him on the conveyor.

Creator Name: Olsmobile Division, General Motors Corp., Lansing, Mich