Patent ID: 7264032

Claim:
An apparatus for mounting a tire on a wheel rim a of a vehicle wheel, comprising: a wheel rim support adapted to support the wheel rim; a tire mounting head including a tire bead deflector adapted to deflect a tire bead of the tire around a wheel rim flange of the wheel rim, and a tire pressin roller adapted to press the tire bead into a rim well of the wheel rim; a drive arrangement connected to said tire mounting head and adapted to drive said tire mounting head rotationally about a wheel rim axis of the wheel rim and axially toward and away from the wheel rim along the wheel rim axis; and arranged on said tire mounting head, a detector arrangement adapted to detect an existence or non-existence of at least a prescribed minimum spacing distance between said tire bead deflector and the wheel rim, and signaling means for providing to said drive arrangement a signal that is responsive to said detecting and that influences the driving of said tire mounting head by said drive arrangement; wherein said detector arrangement comprises a contact member configured and arranged on said tire bead deflector so as to come into contact with the wheel rim flange in the event of an improper working position of said tire bead deflector relative to the wheel rim, in which improper working position said tire bead deflector fails to maintain at lease said prescribed minimum spacing distance between said tire bead deflector and the wheel rim; and wherein said contact member protrudes by said prescribed minimum spacing distance from said tire bead deflector toward the wheel rim flange so as to be positioned to contact the wheel rim flange before any part of said tire bead deflector contacts the wheel rim flange.