Resilient tires and wheels – Tires – resilient – Wheel securing means
Patent
1998-08-31
2000-10-31
Morano, S. Joseph
Resilient tires and wheels
Tires, resilient
Wheel securing means
301 97, 301 98, 301 111, B60C 516, B60B 2100, B60B 2500
Patent
active
061387304
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a light metal rim ring, made of an aluminium alloy, for vehicle wheels, more particularly for wheels of automotive vehicles such as cars, trucks, motor cycles and the like or also for example for trailers thereof.
REVIEW OF RELATED TECHNOLOGY
The rim rings of this type are provided to be fixed by means of a wheel disc or by means of spokes to the wheel hub.
In practice, there is aimed at rendering these rim rings as light as possible while maintaining of course the required strength. By making use of stronger aluminium alloys, it became for example already feasible for cars to construct rim rings having a wall thickness of only 3.6 mm. Less strong alloys, on the contrary, require in practice a thickness of up to for example 5.0 mm.
An object of the present invention is now, however, to provide a new concept of a light metal rim ring for vehicle wheels which enables to achieve, while using the same aluminium alloys, a lighter rim ring complying with the same requirements as to strength.
To this end, the light metal rim ring according to the invention is characterized in that it mainly consists of at least one multicavitied hollow profiled which comprises at least four axial hollow cavities and, a reinforced, in particular a solid portion for the attachment of a wheel disc or spokes.
Notwithstanding the fact that the known solid rim rings are already extremely thin, it has been found according to the invention that it is still possible to realise a further saving of weight by constructing the rim ring from a hollow multicavitied profile.
The use of a hollow multicavitied profile, comprising however less than four hollow cavities, is already known per se for bicycle rims. Usually, these known profiles comprise two so-called pin tunnels in order to fix both extremities of the profile by means of connecting pins to one another. However, it is clear that, in view of the strict balancing which is imposed to vehicle rims, the techniques applied for bicycle rims, in particular the pin connection, can not be applied as such to vehicle rims, all the more because much higher requirements as to strength are imposed to this connection. Also the flash butt welding process, which is applied sometimes for bicycle rims, is much more difficult to apply to rim rings according to the invention because of the big difference in wall thickness between the hollow and the reinforced, portion of the profile, especially when this reinforced portion is solid. As a result thereof, rim rings for automotive vehicles, comprising a reinforced portion for attaching a wheel disc or spokes, are in practice always made by casting or forging which enables however not the use of hollow profiles.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In a particular embodiment of the rim ring according to the invention, said multicavitied hollow profile has a wall thickness which is, in a cross-section of the profile, for the greater part smaller than 1.5 mm, and in particular a wall thickness of 0.8 to 1.4 mm.
It has been found that with such wall thicknesses it is still possible in practice to achieve, with respect to the known rim rings of only 3.6 mm, a saving of weight when the multicavitied hollow profile, from which the rim ring is constructed, comprises for example cavities showing a ratio between the inner height of the cavity with respect to the width thereof of about 0.4 or smaller.
Although it is still possible with a greater inner height/width ratio to achieve a certain saving of weight, preference is given in a further particular embodiment to a ratio smaller than 0.4.
The smaller this ratio, the larger the saving of weight. The lowermost limit which is technically feasible, depends amongst others of the wall thickness of the hollow profile, the total height of this profile and of course also of the curvature radius under which this profile is to be bent. For car rims, the inner height/width ratio of the profile is in this way usually situated between 0.2 and 0.4 whereas this ratio may possibly still
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Blonda Philippe
Fotij Dimitri
Morano S. Joseph
Nguyen Long Bao
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