The Design of Passenger Car Cast Aluminum Wheels

Permanent mold cast aluminum wheels have been widely used as original equipment on passenger cars for a number of years. Testing and field experience together with manufacturing and plant processing experience has resulted in the development of a number of recommended design practices which are outlined in this paper. Methods used to test that design requirements have been met will be presented. Basic wheel designs, rigid and flexible, will be discussed together with the currently used mounting face configurations. Detail design features such as rim contour, nut boss, valve hole, hub pilot, mounting face and window openings will be reviewed. Future design and manufacturing trends will be discussed.