Do You Know the Advantages and Disadvantages of Steel Rims?

The cars on sale today are equipped with wheels of all sizes. However, few people know about the materials of rims and the advantages and disadvantages of different materials. Common people also have some cognitive errors in this regard when buying a car. So let's popularize the knowledge about steel rims for everyone today.

From the beginning of the last century to the 1980s, steel materials dominated the rim materials. The style can be divided into spoke type and spoke plate type. The spoke type has been almost replaced by the spoke plate type in automobiles due to its difficult processing and high cost, and only exists in some vintage and customized models. However, it is still used on motorcycles and bicycles because of its lightweight.

Advantages of steel rims

1. Stamping production, low cost, and convenient processing

2. The absolute load-bearing capacity and hardness are the highest among various rim materials

3. It has good toughness. When it is impacted by more than the maximum external force, it will deform, but will not break. It is convenient to repair the sheet metal

Disadvantages of the steel wheel rim

1. The weight is large, increasing the unsprung mass and total mass is not conducive to improving the vehicle handling and fuel consumption performance

2. The rim edge will be slightly deformed due to excessive toughness, insufficient rigidity, exceeding the limit bearing force, or long-term continuous external force impact, resulting in out of round

3. The manufacturing method of steel plate stamping makes it difficult to produce complex styles and single modeling

Generally speaking, steel rims have distinct advantages and disadvantages. Some advantages, such as strong absolute bearing capacity and high hardness, make steel rims irreplaceable in some models and fields. For example, heavy vehicles such as trucks and buses almost all use steel rims, and the rims of hard off-road vehicles are mostly steel. Many low-end cars also use steel rims due to cost constraints. All police cars in the United States use steel rims, which will not break when intercepting collisions. In addition, the steel wheel rim squatting behind the wheel during the gunfight can also add a layer of protection to help the police's feet block bullets.

However, the disadvantages of steel rims are not unacceptable for vehicles using them. After all, the rims of trucks and buses do not need too beautiful shape, and low-end cars do not require too much handling. Off-road vehicle doesn't care too much about the fuel consumption, which is why it has been used until today.