Technical Field

The system consits of a device that has to be installed on cars (or any other vehicle) hubs; The device allows wheels assembling/disassembling without screwing/unscre- wing the usual threaded bolts (or nuts).

Background Art

Changing a whee is currently requiring a sequence of time consuming operations, i.e.-: 1; bolts (or nuts) unscrewing (normally from 3 to 5 in car's wheel) by means of proper spanner; 2; wheel taking out from hub;

3. wheel putting in and contemporaneous alignment of stud holes with the threaded holes (or studs) in the hub;

4. screwing the bolts (or nuts) and fastening them by proper spanner, to the correct torque.

It is widely recognised that the above operations are not simple because of frequent difficulties which have to be faced, e.g.-: a. to unscrew bolts (or nuts) that requires a significant muscular strength; b; to hold the whee for keeping aligned disc and hub's holes. Moreover, the handling of bolts and spanner causes unpleasant smearing of the hands.

Disclosure of Invention

For obtaining the rapid change of the wheels it is required; a; to install the cylinder-shape device on the hub (fig. 1); b; to equip the disc wheel (rim) with a central sleeve that is properly shaped to couple with the device (fig. 2).

The proposed system eliminates al the mentioned disadvan- tages, and allows the wheel replacement in a few simple, time saving operations with no strength required.

The assembling will be carried out with the simple and quick movement which is required to place the wheel on the hub. A moderate physical effort is required only for pushing forward the wheel while it is approaching the hub. The pressure of the disc wheel it self, against the hub, puts in action the mechanism of the device; the four pins will then come out from the device (fig;

3), that is fully matchable with the hub, and will seat in four corresponding holes (or in an holder) made ready in the central sleeve of the disc wheel

(rim) (fig: 4).

The pins' extrusion is obtained by hydraulic (oil) thrust of four small rams that are activated by the progressive sliding of the hub into the central sleeve of the disc wheel (rim); the internal surface of the sleeve is shaped on purpose (fig. 5 - 6 - 7):

The oil is housed inside the device (fig: 8) and it is help pressurised by a piston (fig; 9) fitted from the exterior surface of the device; Proper caps make sure the seal of piston, small rams and pins (fig.

7 - 8);

On the internal surface of the sleeve, at one end of special grooves (fig: 12 n; 1),, are placed suitable shaped cams (fig: 12 ; 2) which progressively transmit adequate pressure for pushing in the four small rams (fig. 13 n: l)?τhe movements of the small rams transmit the hydraulic thrust to the pins so that, when the sleeve is completely fitted on the hub, they come quickly off (fig; 13 n?"~2) and take position inside the corrispon- ding holes (or groove) of the sleeve (fig." 4) at this time the whee is tightly fastened to the hub

(fig.14):

The whole assembling operation is just a few seconds long. The effort required is only to lift up the wheel and to approach its central part to the hub; These are operations similar to the current ones that also require the further screwing and fastening of the bolts (or nuts); With the proposed system only a moderate pressure against the hub is required to obtain in a little while assembling and fastening of the wheel;

To avoid the accidental pins release, a suitable safety cap (or hub cover) (fig: 15 ) wil be externally fitted to the wheel; This cap is moulded to have four arms with crescent-shape ends that will plug in suitable narrowing (slot) made in the pins (fig; 16);- To disassemble the wheel it is sufficient to take down the safety (fig: 19) cap and, by means of a proper spanner (fig: 20) }< to rotate anticlockwise the end part of the device (fig; 18 n: 2). This will cause the release of the ram that holds the hydraulic system pressure, the consequent release of the pins (fig.

18 n: 3) and the wheel loosening:

As previously stated, it is indispensable to have properly shaped circular rims that have beeη equipped with the specific sleeve, suitable to house the device. The hub drives the wheel by means of a frontal joint (with an appropriate number of teeth) or similar devices (such as for example a splined hub an so on); (Fig? 21)

The safety cap may be locked by a key or o clutch (fig: 17)..