초록 ▼

A light projector mounted on a front wheel of a vehicle uses a single laser to develop a beam which is split into a pair of light beams. The first light beam is projected to a calibrated mirror mounted on an adjacent rear wheel and is reflected to a target mounted near the projector on the front whe

A light projector mounted on a front wheel of a vehicle uses a single laser to develop a beam which is split into a pair of light beams. The first light beam is projected to a calibrated mirror mounted on an adjacent rear wheel and is reflected to a target mounted near the projector on the front wheel of the vehicle so that the front wheel may be aligned with the rear wheel. The second light beam is projected to a mirror mounted on the other front wheel and is reflected to a target mounted adjacent the projector to check the toe of the front wheels. The target comprises a multichannel encoder which develops a plurality of Gray-coded binary signals in response to the position of the return beam. A rotating prism causes the light beams to sweep repetitively in a vertical plane so that the beams will strike the mirrors and the targets even when the projector is not mounted in a level position. A second prism may be moved into position to intercept the light beams and deflect them a predetermined angular amount so that the apparatus may be calibrated to correct for different spacings between the front wheels of the vehicles being checked.

대표청구항 ▼

Apparatus for measuring wheel alignment of a motor vehicle comprising: means for projecting a directional beam of light; means for attaching said projecting means to a first wheel of said vehicle for projecting said directional beam with the longitudinal axis of said beam being in a predetermined an

Apparatus for measuring wheel alignment of a motor vehicle comprising: means for projecting a directional beam of light; means for attaching said projecting means to a first wheel of said vehicle for projecting said directional beam with the longitudinal axis of said beam being in a predetermined angular relationship to a line generally parallel to the axis of rotation of said first wheel; a multichannel photosensitive encoder positioned to intercept said beam, said encoder having means for generating a plurality of binary signals indicative of the distance between the position on said encoder at which the light beam is intercepted and a reference position thereon; means for automatically modifying said binary signals in accordance with the distance between said projecting means and said encoder; and means responsive to said binary signals for indicating an angular position of said wheel.