Why is a good wheel so expensive?

If you look closely at the wheels of cars on the road, you will find that some of the wheels are made of steel, commonly known as "iron pots." In terms of manufacturing materials, wheels are divided into steel wheels and aluminum alloy wheels.

Steel wheels are simple to manufacture, low cost and have good fatigue resistance. They are cheap and "resistance", but their mass, poor heat dissipation, and inertial resistance are relatively large, which have a relatively large impact on the power, and the brake burden is also relatively large. Large, and its appearance is not in line with the current mainstream aesthetics, so it is rarely adopted by current automakers. Most of them play the obscure role in the trunk-the spare tire.

In contrast, aluminum alloy wheels rely on the advantages of materials, lighter weight, better heat dissipation, higher strength, and more changeable shapes. It is natural to be favored. Its only disadvantage is that the manufacturing cost is relatively high. Compared with steel wheels, the price is much higher. However, due to aesthetic needs, most of the cars on the market now come standard with aluminum alloy wheels, which are only used on some low-end brand models. As a configuration, low-profile steel wheels and high-profile aluminum alloys.

According to different manufacturing processes, aluminum alloy wheels are also divided into casting, segmental and low-pressure precision casting. Even if the same material, the use of different processing technology to make wheels, but there are worlds of difference in performance, this is the "secret" of the high price of high-quality wheels!

Among them, the forging process is to directly squeeze the whole aluminum ingot by a thousand-ton press on the mold, which can effectively eliminate the looseness of the metal as-cast, welding holes, etc.; the alloy molecules in the material are neatly arranged, the density is uniform, and the surface is smooth. It is meticulous, with the highest material strength and lighter weight. However, the forging wheel hub has a complicated process and a low yield rate, so the manufacturing cost remains high.

There is a saying that "the body weight is reduced by 10Kg, which is not as good as the wheel hub is 1Kg". The lightweight wheels can enable the vehicle to obtain better acceleration and braking performance, and the handling will be significantly improved. The forged wheels are just right. It meets this requirement, so it is mostly used in racing cars, and the price is naturally much higher. It can be said that owning forged wheels is the dream of every car lover.

Wheels can be divided into single-piece, double-piece and three-piece according to different shapes. In addition to the single-piece type, which is a one-piece structure, both two-piece and three-piece wheels can be replaced according to the owner’s preference. .