Plastic Wheels getting closer to production!!
Plastic Wheels getting closer to production!!
This will change the market once it gets into mainstream manufacturing!
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/06/22/p...to-production/
Quote:
Today's cars contain so much plastic that this lightweight, cheap material could best be described as the chrome of our generation. And yet, researchers are finding new automotive applications for it every day. These wheels, for instance, are made of plastic. To be specific, the material is glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) and it one day may replace alloy, aluminum and, for the lucky few, carbon fiber, as our wheel material of choice. Though researchers at Fraunhofer in Germany have been working on GRP wheels for some time, they haven't been able to efficiently test them until now. A new type of simulation that allows them to manipulate the length, curvature and density of the glass fibers themselves in the wheel has opened the door to much better testing methods that should result in plastic wheels coming to the market much sooner. GRP wheels should be both lighter and less expensive than their metal counterparts, reducing the unsprung weight of your car and wallet at the same time. Where do we sign up?
[Source: Motor Authority]
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/06/22/p...to-production/
Quote:
Today's cars contain so much plastic that this lightweight, cheap material could best be described as the chrome of our generation. And yet, researchers are finding new automotive applications for it every day. These wheels, for instance, are made of plastic. To be specific, the material is glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) and it one day may replace alloy, aluminum and, for the lucky few, carbon fiber, as our wheel material of choice. Though researchers at Fraunhofer in Germany have been working on GRP wheels for some time, they haven't been able to efficiently test them until now. A new type of simulation that allows them to manipulate the length, curvature and density of the glass fibers themselves in the wheel has opened the door to much better testing methods that should result in plastic wheels coming to the market much sooner. GRP wheels should be both lighter and less expensive than their metal counterparts, reducing the unsprung weight of your car and wallet at the same time. Where do we sign up?
[Source: Motor Authority]
Here is a direct link to the company doing the research:
http://www.fraunhofer.de/fhg/EN/pres...2007Thema6.jsp
"Automobile wheel rims have to be able to take a lot of punishment, including curb impact, potholes and road salt. Before they can be fitted to cars, therefore, they have to undergo reliable testing to ascertain whether they are strong enough and meet the quality requirements. Standardized testing methods exist for conventional rims made of steel or aluminum. Fiber-reinforced plastics have reached the stage where they could be used for making wheels, but there is doubt as to whether the testing methods for metal wheels can be applied to them. As a result, plastic wheels have not yet been approved by Germany’s technical inspectorate, the TÜV. Manufacturer BTE Hybrid-Tech®GmbH has plenty of reason to be confident, however: the wheel rims made of fiber-plastic composite which it produced in 2001 have successfully come through tests over distances of 250,000 kilometers. The advantage of plastic wheels is that the material combines high specific strength with low weight, and it looks good as well. It consists of two main components – a matrix and reinforcing fibers. Through their interaction the two components achieve better properties in the composite material than they do separately."
http://www.fraunhofer.de/fhg/EN/pres...2007Thema6.jsp
"Automobile wheel rims have to be able to take a lot of punishment, including curb impact, potholes and road salt. Before they can be fitted to cars, therefore, they have to undergo reliable testing to ascertain whether they are strong enough and meet the quality requirements. Standardized testing methods exist for conventional rims made of steel or aluminum. Fiber-reinforced plastics have reached the stage where they could be used for making wheels, but there is doubt as to whether the testing methods for metal wheels can be applied to them. As a result, plastic wheels have not yet been approved by Germany’s technical inspectorate, the TÜV. Manufacturer BTE Hybrid-Tech®GmbH has plenty of reason to be confident, however: the wheel rims made of fiber-plastic composite which it produced in 2001 have successfully come through tests over distances of 250,000 kilometers. The advantage of plastic wheels is that the material combines high specific strength with low weight, and it looks good as well. It consists of two main components – a matrix and reinforcing fibers. Through their interaction the two components achieve better properties in the composite material than they do separately."
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This is very interesting. I would like to see if other than the dynamic loads, if they took into account forces acting on the wheel during a tire installation. A plastic wheel would be a disadvantage if it required special tire mounting equipment.
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