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John: would the "downstream" guys re-balance the wheel after applying the weights @ the grease blob, or just assume the first guy fed them the correct weights?
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The guys applying the weights sat right next to the roller conveyor where the wheel/tire came by horizontally. They had color-coded bins of weights between them and the conveyor, and when the wheel/tire stopped in front of them, a colored light came on (in addition to the colored wax dot on the tire) that showed them which weight to apply. When they released the wheel/tire after applying the weight, it went directly to the install point on the main line.
If the balance station detected excessive weight required to achieve balance, the conveyor kicked that wheel/tire out and sounded a buzzer for repair. A repairman then took the out-of-spec wheel/tire to a stationary mounter, broke it down, rotated the tire 180* on the wheel, re-inflated it, re-balanced it, and sent it to the line.
