Robotire

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[Jeff]

"4x faster than humans"

So I only have to wait 2-1/2 hours for my tire changes now?

[YoDoug]

A couple thoughts from watching the video;

1. When I was in my late teens I worked at a tire shop. Unless those robots were just slowed down for the video there is no effing way that is four times faster. Even with robots on both sides it is still slow. I worked at one shop that had a half hour guarantee for four tires mounted and balanced. On a car with smaller tires you were expected to do it by yourself in 30 minutes. On a bigger car/truck they would team up two people.

2. There are four robots in that system plus linear track motions, torque sensors, vision system, etc. That has to be at least $500K installed and ready to run. At $20/hr ($50k/yr) you are looking at a 10 year payback. Not very attractive. Plus it is not fully unattended, there is a human doing some of the work at the tire machine. They still need to get paid as well.

[gcode]

There are four robots in that system plus linear track motions, torque sensors, vision system, etc. That has to be at least $500K installed and ready to run. At $20/hr ($50k/yr) you are looking at a 10 year payback. Not very attractive. Plus it is not fully unattended, there is a human doing some of the work at the tire machine. They still need to get paid as well.

The article that accompanied the video stated the goal was to reduce back injuries and payouts from lawsuits.
I agree that a couple of healthy young men could smoke those robots all day long.
The tire store I go to has a 60+ year old gentleman doing tires. I'd be surprised if he weighs over 130 pounds
He could smoke those robots all by himself.

[RobertELee]

Only place I could see that good for is Discount Tire. They have the ability to buy a high enough quantity of them and their price/unit should drastically drop. They'd need to also figure out a way to remove the human at the tire changer and it would be a no-brainer. One person could easily run 2-4 bays at a time at that speed.

Otherise F1 will just laugh in their faces.

[YoDoug]

The article that accompanied the video stated the goal was to reduce back injuries and payouts from lawsuits.
I agree that a couple of healthy young men could smoke those robots all day long.
The tire store I go to has a 60+ year old gentleman doing tires. I'd be surprised if he weighs over 130 pounds
He could smoke those robots all by himself.

I think you could add pneumatic or mechanical assist arms to help lighten the load for workers a lot cheaper than those robots. At the car factories on the assembly lines I can guarantee that a human is not lifting tires onto vehicles all day. They have an assist arm for the human to use.