ALUMINIUM WHEEL RIMS

Evening Star, Issue 25225, 12 July 1944, Page 3

ALUMINIUM WHEEL RIMS

I POST-WAR MOTOR GAR DEVELOPMENT Automobile and tyre manufacturers have long recognised that if the weight of the rims of wheels could be cut down, thus 'reducing unsprung weight, the length of tyre life would be increased considerably. Logically, aluminium provided the means of accomplising this weight saving. Just before the war experiments were being carried out overseas with extruded aluminium wellbase rims for use on automobiles. Formed into a circle and electrically welded, the rims were stated to be inexpensive to manufacture and correct in every detail. The experimental work, however, had to be stopped when practically all aluminium was assigned to war use. With the huge extension of American plants for the processing of this lightweight metal to meet war needs (the United States alone can now produce 1,128,000 tons a year, an output more than double the world's 1937 production of this alloy)—new uses will have to 'be found to absorb the tremendous increased production of this metal. Conceivably, after the war, aluminium rims for mptor cars may provide a permanent avenue for the annual utilisation of a large tonnage of this metal.