Patent ID: 8522437

Claim:
A method for assembling a tire and a wheel, comprising the steps of: providing a single-cell workstation including: a robotic device and a plurality of sub-stations; releasably-coupling the robotic device to a wheel at a coupling sub-station of the plurality of sub-stations; moving the wheel to each of the other plurality of sub-stations according to movements of the robotic device; and joining a tire to the wheel by performing an assembly operation at one sub-station of the plurality of sub-stations without releasing the wheel from the robotic device, wherein the moving step further comprising the steps of: moving the wheel to a tire and wheel mounting sub-station of the plurality of sub-stations and mounting the tire to the wheel, wherein the mounting step further comprises: rotating the wheel and claw portion about a first axis, wherein the first axis is not co-axial with a second axis that extends through the center of the arm and the tire, wherein the first axis and the second axis intersect; plunging the wheel toward the tire; and providing a helical angle of approach of the wheel with respect to the tire by preventing the first axis from rotating about the second axis at the intersection of the first and second axes.