Hunter Engineering Co.’s new Revolution tire changer with “WalkAway” capability features 80 seconds of autonomous bead breaking and demounting that can be performed without an operator present.
The new feature allows operators to “walk away,” freeing them to perform balancing procedures or other shop tasks during the longest portion of the tire changing action.
Hunter says Revolution tire changers equipped with WalkAway capability also reduce operator effort and potential errors. The operator simply loads and unloads the assembly, orients the TPMS, enables the WalkAway feature, then offloads the old tire.
WalkAway increases the automatic and autonomous operation of the Revolution tire changer to save technicians time, effort and mistakes. When paired with wheel balancing, over 25% time savings is possible, according to Hunter.
Tire changing is an all-day task, not a race for single tires. Assembly after assembly, the partially autonomous Revolution outpaces conventional tire changing equipment and now WalkAway™ adds even more capacity. Most technicians mount and balance assemblyies sequentially. First demounting and mounting all four tires; then balancing all four assemblies. The Revolution featuring WalkAway frees the operator to balance assemblies while the Revolution demounts the next tire – autonomously – saving time, adding capacity, and reducing the time technicians spend on each job.
The company says self-monitoring WalkAway can be easily set for tires two through four in a set. A status indicator lamp signals when the machine is in operation, stopped or requires operator intervention. The Revolution also features additional autonomous funtions such as WalkAway inflation and WalkAway bead massage.
For more information, visit www.hunter.com/demos.