• Defining and explaining terms associated with wheel and rim servicing can increase understanding of the process and contribute to its safety.

Terms associated with wheel and rim servicing are defined in the following list of definitions. These terms include:

Barrier: A fence, wall, or other structure or object placed between a single-piece rim wheel and a service worker during tire inflation, to contain the rim wheel components should air contained in the single-piece rim wheel suddenly be released.

Charts: The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) publications entitled Demounting and Mounting Procedures for Tube-Type Truck and Bus Tires, Demounting and Mounting Procedures for Tubeless Truck and Bus Tires, and Multipiece Rim Matching Chart. OSHA also will accept any other manual or poster that provides at least the same instructions, safety precautions, and other information contained in these publications, which is applicable to the types of wheels the employer is servicing.

Demounting: The opposite of mounting.

Installing: The transfer and attachment of an assembled rim wheel onto a vehicle axle hub.

Mounting: The assembly or putting together of wheel and tire components to form a rim wheel, including inflation.

Multipiece rim wheel: The assemblage of a multipiece wheel with the tire tube and other components.

Multipiece wheel: A vehicle wheel consisting of two or more parts, one of which is a side or locking ring designed to hold the tire on the wheel by interlocking components when the tire is inflated.

Removing: The opposite of installing.

Restraining device: An apparatus such as a cage, rack, assemblage of bars, and other components that will constrain all rim wheel components during an explosive separation of a multipiece rim wheel, or during the sudden release of air contained in a single-piece rim wheel.

Rim manual: A publication containing instructions from the manufacturer or other qualified organization for correct mounting, demounting, maintenance, and safety precautions pertaining to the type of wheel being serviced.

Rim wheel: An assemblage of tire, tube, liner (where appropriate), and wheel components.

Service area: That part of an employer’s premises used for servicing rim wheels, or any other place where rim wheel service occurs.

Service or servicing: The mounting and demounting of rim wheels and related activities such as inflating, deflating, installing, removing, and handling.

Single-piece rim wheel: The assemblage of a single-piece rim wheel with the tire and other components.

Single-piece wheel: A vehicle wheel consisting of one part, designed to hold the tire on the wheel when the tire is inflated.

Trajectory: Any potential path or route that a rim wheel component may travel during an explosive separation, or the sudden release of pressurized air, or an area in which an air blast from a single-piece rim wheel may be released. The trajectory may deviate from paths that are perpendicular to the assembled position of the rim wheel at the time of separation or explosion. (See Appendix A for examples of trajectories.)

Wheel: The portion of a rim wheel that provides the method of attachment of the assembly to the axle of a vehicle and also provides the means to contain the inflated portion of the assembly (i.e., the tire and/or tube).