In Russia, they have created a technology for 3D printing of wheel rim flanges

Scientists from the Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University have proposed a fundamentally new approach to the production of wheel rim rings. With the help of electrogas welding technology from aluminum wire, an experimental rim was created, which, as tests have shown, is stronger than samples made using traditional casting.

The basis was taken from an aluminum wire made of 5556 alloy with a diameter of 1.2 mm, provided by LLC "NPC Magnetic Hydrodynamics" and manufactured using a unique technology from a long-sized cast blank by electromagnetic crystallization.

Using electrogas welding, disk rim blanks were manufactured. It is noted that the basis of the 3D printing technology of metal products is the melting of the wire due to an electric arc, and the movement of the printing tool is carried out by an industrial robot layer by layer according to a given program - a 3D model of the product, in this case, the rim of the disk.

"Despite the seeming obviousness of the process, the development is based on years of scientific research and experiments. The strength of the product is affected by the adjusted combination of the speed of movement of the robotic arm, as well as the speed of wire feeding, melting temperature, metal composition, etc." - emphasized in the university.

To conduct tests, five assemblies of identical disks with a size of 6.5J * 14N2 were prepared. Four cast disks were manufactured at the production of the Tomsk enterprise Khomen Wheels, and the fifth was assembled from a cast "star" and a rim grown from wire. The disks were fitted with a tire size of 215/70 R14 with a pressure of 200 kPa. The wheel was placed on a stand simulating the load. A load fell on it at various speeds and heights, and similar tests simulate the car hitting a pothole while driving.

"A series of experiments has shown that under high load from identical impacts, the rim grown by us in the wheel sagged 4 mm less than the cast one under the same conditions. At the same time, the wheel with the grown rim did not completely lose pressure, but retained residual pressure, which is safer for road traffic. Under similar load, the wheel with a cast disk did not retain air", - noted the head of the Laboratory of Light Materials and Constructions of the SPbPU Oleg Panchenko.

Scientists emphasize that at the moment there are no technologies for 3D printing of rims for car wheels in the world, and the new development ensures the cost of the finished rim at the level of products created by traditional methods, while increasing the level of safety.

Photo: SPbPU.