Technical Report The Construction of Alloy Wheels :: Design and Technology

Technical Report The Construction of Alloy WheelsIntroductionAluminium pervert wheels are now use in all branches of Motor Racing,ranging from Touring cars and Rally cars to Formula One cars. TheAlloy wheels offer far superior mechanical properties than the unoriginal steel wheels formerly used. These benefits includereduced un-sprung weight, i.e. not held by the suspension, providingmore precise steering input and improved responsiveness.Alloy wheels also improve acceleration and braking due to thereduction of weight. The added strength of a quality metal wheel cansignificantly reduce wheel/tire deflection in cornering. This is particularly critical with a vehicle equipped with high performancetires where lateral forces may approach 1.0g. The metals in alloywheels are excellent conductors of heat - meliorate heat dissipationfrom the brakes - reducing risk of brake fade under demandingconditions. Additionally, alloy wheels can be designed to allow more get off to flow over the br akes, this can help cooling.The alloy used in the finest road wheels today is a blend of aluminiumand other elements. The term powder magazine wheel is sometimes incorrectly usedto describe alloy wheels. Magnesium is generally considered to be anunsuitable alloy for road usage due to its brickle nature andsusceptibility to corrosion.Nowadays, there are basically three ways in which alloy automotivewheels are constructed. The three types can be referred to only when bycast, billet and forged. moulding is a relatively inexpensive way to produce a high-quality,fairly strong alloy wheel many aftermarket alloy wheels designed forstreet use are made this way. Billet wheels are machined from a solidchunk of material and forging uses intense heat and shove totransform a slug of alloy material into the final shape of a wheel.This report will focus mainly on the casting processes used.Casting ProcessesThe nearly common process of constructing alloy wheels is One-PieceCasting, there are a number of methods to do this, and the most basicis become Casting, this process is used world wide throughout the castingindustry and is not exclusive to alloy wheels.The Die Casting process uses a permanent mould commonly made of metal,which generally means that there is high tooling costs compared toother methods of casting, but this high tooling cost is combined withlow production costs. This means that go by casting is suitable forproducts with a large production number.There are four main processes in the die casting family, these areGravity Die CastingPressure Die CastingLow Pressure Die CastingSqueeze CastingGravity Die CastingThis process is the most simple of the four, the mould or die, whichis generally made in two halves, is filled with molten metal, in the