ABB Robots and the New Robotic Tire Change

PitPro's tire-changing robot just went live at a Kal Tire shop in Calgary. Here is how ABB's tire mounting and assembly robots fit, and what comes next.

INDUSTRIAL ROBOTICS

Chat With Robot

9/24/20261 min read

For most of the car's history, tire service meant a mechanic with a jack and a wrench. In 1940 Oulun Systema ran a car and tire repair shop out of a brick hall in Oulu, Finland, and a job there went the way it did everywhere: lift the car, spin off the lug nuts, swap the wheel.

Black and white photo of a brick garage building with an arched roof and a fuel canopy
Black and white photo of a brick garage building with an arched roof and a fuel canopy

Oulun Systema's car and tire repair shop in Oulu, Finland, 1940. Photo: Finnish Heritage Agency / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

Shops later added pneumatic impact wrenches, tire changer machines and wheel balancers, but a person still does every step. In Canada, where most drivers switch to winter tires each fall and back again in spring, the rush means weeks of heavy lifting, and shops struggle to keep workers.

Red hatchback raised on a blue floor jack with one wheel removed and lying on the ground
Red hatchback raised on a blue floor jack with one wheel removed and lying on the ground

Changing a car tire by hand with a floor jack and a cross wrench. Photo: Santeri Viinamäki / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

On September 23, TechCrunch reported that PitPro Automation had installed its first tire-changing robot at a Kal Tire shop in Calgary. Two oven-sized robots find and loosen the lug nuts, store them, pull each wheel and fit the new one. PitPro says a full set of four takes under 15 minutes.

Red tire changing machine standing in a shop in front of racks of tires
Red tire changing machine standing in a shop in front of racks of tires

A tire changer machine in a tire shop. Photo: Flippin504 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Car factories have automated this step for years. ABB lists tire mounting among its final assembly applications, alongside windshields and lamps, with robots lifting wheels onto hubs and tightening the nuts. A service bay also has to get the old wheel off first.

White ABB industrial robot on a rail next to a car body on a yellow carrier
White ABB industrial robot on a rail next to a car body on a yellow carrier

ABB robots working on a car body in final assembly. Photo: ABB

ABB's Dynamic Assembly Pack combines vision and force control so a robot can follow a car body that keeps moving and still fit parts precisely. A tire bay is easier in one way, since the car stands still, but open bay doors let in dust and weather. PitPro says it had to design around that.

Orange robot arm reaching into a grey car body on an assembly line
Orange robot arm reaching into a grey car body on an assembly line

ABB's Dynamic Assembly Pack fitting parts to a moving car body. Photo: ABB

PitPro's founder wants to move into other automated maintenance, and Automated Tire's SmartBay already adds wheel balancing and inspections. For small garages, a cobot like ABB's GoFa, which you teach by moving its arm by hand, could cover jobs too small for a full cell. I'd be happy if fewer mechanics had to wreck their backs every October.

Woman guiding an ABB GoFa cobot arm by hand over a table
Woman guiding an ABB GoFa cobot arm by hand over a table

Lead-through teaching: moving an ABB GoFa arm by hand. Photo: ABB

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