Every year millions of small weights are attached to tires by automotive technicians balancing them. Tire balance, also referred to as tire unbalance or imbalance, describes the distribution of mass within an automobile tire and/or the wheel to which it is attached. When the tire rotates, asymmetries of mass cause the wheel to wobble. This wobbling can give rise to ride disturbances, usually vertical and lateral vibrations. It can also result in a wobbling of the steering. The ride disturbance due to unbalance usually increases with speed. Vehicle suspensions can be excited by tire unbalance forces when the speed of the wheel reaches a point that its rotating frequency equals the suspension's resonant frequency. Tires are inspected in factories and repair shops by two methods: static balancers and dynamic balancers. Tires with high unbalance forces are downgraded or rejected. When tires are fitted to wheels at the point of sale, they are measured again, and wheel weights, also known as correction weights, are applied to counteract the combined effect of the tire and wheel unbalance.
Automotive technicians reduce the wobble to an acceptable level when balancing the wheel by adding small wheel weights to the inner and outer wheel rims. A wheel weight is installed by the use of a wheel weight and/or clip that secures the wheel weight to the edge of the wheel. A common garage tool, like a hammer, is typically used to hammer the wheel weight and/or clip down onto the wheel. To remove the wheel weight and/or clip another common garage tool, similar to a pair of pliers or a screw driver, are typically used to grasp and pinch or pry the wheel weight and/or clip to remove the wheel weight.
Traditionally, wheel weights have been made of lead. However, to reduce environmental concerns, steel and zinc weights are being used more frequently. These steel and zinc weights are coated or non-coated. The coated weights have a coating on them which have been discovered to chip or scratch during the installation or removal of the wheel weight by standard wheel weight tools. In addition to the problem with the wheel weight chipping or scratching during installation and removal, the actual wheels themselves (or coatings on the wheels) have been discovered to chip and or scratch around its edges during installation or removal of the wheel weight with standard wheel weight tools. As should be understood these chipped and/or scratched portions of the wheel and/or wheel weights are undesirable for vehicle owners.
It is thus highly desirable to create a wheel weight tool for installing and/or removing wheel weights that may be easier to use than common garage tools and may reduce or prevent chips and/or scratches on the wheel weight and/or wheel itself.
The instant invention is designed to address the above mentioned problems.