System and method for rotational position tracking of brake lathe adjustment assembly

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10456839-B2
Application number	US-201715598031-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 17, 2017
Priority date	Jun 16, 2016
Publication date	Oct 29, 2019
Grant date	Oct 29, 2019

Abstract

An on-car brake lathe is provided with a runout compensation system configured to monitor the rotational position of a pair of slant discs within an aligning joint of the on-car brake lathe. The system monitors the amount of runout present between the rotating components of the on-car brake lathe and the wheel hub to which the on-car brake lathe is secured. The system calculates the appropriate rotational position for each slant disc within the aligning joint required to impart a necessary adjustment in the wheel coupling rotational axis in order to align the on-car brake lathe with the rotational axis of the wheel hub. Finally, an adjustment mechanism is activated to rotationally drive each slant disc directly to the calculated rotational position with a minimum amount of rotational movement based on the current rotational position of each slant disc and the required calculated rotational positions.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of resurfacing a brake disc of a vehicle brake rotor assembly, the method comprising:
providing an on-vehicle brake lathe system having a lathe body with a driving motor, at least one cutting head operably attached to the lathe body, an adapter, a rotatable drive shaft driven by the motor for rotation about a lathe axis of rotation, and an alignment mechanism coupling the adapter to the drive shaft;
attaching the adapter of the on-vehicle brake lathe system to the vehicle brake assembly coaxial with a brake rotor assembly axis of rotation;
generating a runout measurement signal indicative of an orientation of said lathe axis of rotation with respect to said brake rotor assembly axis of rotation;
generating at least one orientation measurement signal indicative of a current rotational position about said lathe axis of rotation for a first rotationally adjustable disc having non-parallel faces, one of the faces being non-orthogonal to said lathe axis of rotation to define a slant surface contained within said alignment mechanism;
identifying, from said runout measurement signal and said orientation signal, an amount of change in a phase and/or an inclination required to align said lathe axis of rotation to said brake rotor assembly axis of rotation to within an acceptable runout tolerance;
generating electronically at least one control signal in response to said identified amount of change in said phase and/or inclination of the lathe axis of rotation using a microprocessor operatively coupled to the alignment mechanism;
altering the rotational position of said slant surface about said lathe axis of rotation within said alignment mechanism in response to said at least one control signal to achieve said required change in said phase and/or inclination of said lathe axis of rotation; and
rotationally driving said drive shaft, said alignment mechanism, and said adapter to rotate the vehicle brake assembly with respect to the at least one cutting head to resurface the brake disc of the vehicle brake rotor assembly.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein generating said at least one control signal includes identifying a single change in the rotational position of said at least one rotationally adjustable slant surface about said lathe axis of rotation required to reduce misalignment between said lathe axis of rotation and said brake rotor assembly axis of rotation to within an acceptable tolerance.

3. The method of claim 1 further including rotationally driving said alignment mechanism about said lathe axis of rotation during said steps of generating said runout measurement signal, generating said at least one orientation measurement signal, and altering said rotational position of said slant surface within said alignment mechanism.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein altering the rotational position of said slant surface within said alignment mechanism imparts a rotational position change on said slant surface corresponding to either a coarse rotational adjustment or a fine rotational adjustment, wherein said coarse rotational adjustment is greater than said fine rotational adjustment.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of generating said runout measurement signal is repeated following said alteration in the rotational position of said slant surface within said alignment mechanism; and
repeating said steps of generating said at least one orientation measurement signal, generating said at least one control signal, and altering the rotational position of said slant surface within said alignment mechanism responsive to runout between said lathe axis of rotation and said brake rotor assembly axis of rotation exceeding an acceptable tolerance.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein rotationally driving said drive shaft and said alignment mechanism is selectable between a clockwise and a counter-clockwise rotational direction; and
wherein a magnitude of said selected change in the alignment of the lathe axis with respect to the brake rotor assembly axis of rotation is responsive to said measured runout.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein altering the rotational position of said slant surface about said lathe axis of rotation within said alignment mechanism in response to said at least one control signal includes altering the rotational position of said first rotationally adjustable disc relative to a coaxial second rotationally adjustable disc having non-parallel faces within said alignment mechanism to achieve said selected inclination change in said lathe axis of rotation with respect to the brake rotor assembly axis of rotation.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein altering the rotational position of said slant surface about said lathe axis of rotation within said alignment mechanism in response to said at least one control signal includes altering the rotational position of said coaxial first and second rotationally adjustable discs in sync about said lathe axis of rotation within said alignment mechanism to achieve said selected phase change in said lathe axis of rotation with respect to the brake rotor assembly axis of rotation.

9. A method of resurfacing a brake disc of a vehicle brake rotor assembly, the method comprising:
providing an on-vehicle brake lathe system having a lathe body with a driving motor, at least one cutting head operably attached to the lathe body, an adapter, a rotatable drive shaft driven by the motor for rotation about a lathe axis of rotation, and an alignment mechanism coupling the adapter for rotation about an output axis to the drive shaft;
attaching the adapter of the on-vehicle brake lathe system to the vehicle brake assembly coaxial with a brake rotor assembly axis of rotation;
activating said driving motor to rotationally drive said brake rotor assembly via said adapter, said alignment mechanism, and said drive shaft;
during rotational movement of said alignment mechanism
generating a runout measurement signal indicative of a phase and inclination of said lathe axis of rotation with respect to said brake rotor assembly axis of rotation,
generating rotational position measurement signals indicative of current rotational positions about said lathe axis of rotation for each of a first disc coaxial with lathe axis of rotation and a second disc coaxial with said lathe axis of rotation, wherein said first and second discs each include facing surfaces orientated at an oblique angle to said lathe axis of rotation, wherein a rotational position of said first disc relative to said rotational position of said second disc establishes said output axis inclination, and wherein a rotational position of said first and second discs as a unit about said lathe axis of rotation establishes a phase of said output axis;
generating a control signal in response to said runout measurement signals and to said rotational position measurement signals associated with each of said first and second discs, said control signal representing required changes in said rotational position of said first disc, said rotational position of said second disc, and/or said rotational position of said unit about said lathe axis of rotation necessary to align said output axis with said lathe axis to within an acceptable runout tolerance;
aligning said output axis and said lathe axis of rotation by altering the rotational positions of said first and/or said second disc within said alignment mechanism in response to said control signal to achieve said required changes; and

rotationally driving said drive shaft, said alignment mechanism, and said adapter to rotate the vehicle brake assembly with respect to the at least one cutting head to resurface the brake disc of the vehicle brake rotor assembly.

1

Assignees

• Hunter Eng Co

Inventors

• Nelgner William James
• Talbott Jeffrey P
• Clasquin Joel A

Classifications

• B23B2235/04

  Machining of brake discs · CPC title

• B23B2270/48

  Measuring or detecting · CPC title

• B23B2260/128

  Sensors · CPC title

• G01B7/31

  for testing the alignment of axes · CPC title

• G01D5/145

  influenced by the relative movement between the Hall device and magnetic fields (see G01R33/06) · CPC title