Advanced Tire and Wheel Bead Seating System 

Fpo

Kokusai was approached by a European company that outsources tire and wheel assemblies for a European car manufacturer.  Their interest was in Kokusai’s bead seating operation, as their current suppliers had issues with effectiveness and potential damage to tire & wheel assemblies.  Initially, Kokusai was not an approved supplier for either the outsourcing company or the final manufacturer.  In order for Kokusai to become certified, they had to run bead seating operations on the car manufacturer’s tire and wheel assemblies, followed by various tests to ensure successful operation.  The first test run was at an existing Kokusai customer’s location in the middle of the night, while operations were shut down in between their second and first shifts.  The outsourcing company then took the tire and wheel assemblies and ran them through their measurement equipment to verify proper bead seat.  Preliminary results were acceptable; however, the customer requested additional real world tests.  A large number of wheels and separate tires were then shipped to Kokusai.  For the next test, Kokusai mounted and inflated the tires and wheels in a very short time period prior to the bead seating operation, as they would in production mode.  The customer’s personnel reviewed the tests on the latest version of the all-electric servo bead seater model.  These assemblies were then sent back for measurement verification.  After this process, the European car manufacturer approved the Kokusai bead seat machine and process.  The Kokusai current bead seating model would normally transfer the tire and wheel assemblies using an overhead transfer system, but the car manufacturer would not allow the wheel face to be touched, even though previous models showed no marking.  Kokusai redesigned the transfer mechanism to hold on to the outside of the tire rather than holding the wheel surface, thus avoiding any issues.

To learn more about this bead seating operation, please contact Kokusai directly.