Wheel Assembly:
The wheel is an assembly of the hub, the rim, base body or say barrel and spokes/spiders/ disc (body, itself wheel). Wheel assembly is about the structure of complete wheel. The rim is the "outer edge of a wheel, holding the tyre. The hub is the center of the wheel, where the axle connects, and typically houses a bearing, and is where the spokes or spiders meet. A spokes are used in wire wheel, spiders in casted alloy wheels while disc used in disc wheel. A spokes are thin rods while spiders more thick and disc covers all outer periphery of wheel i.e. barrel/base body. Sometimes, wheel assembly referring to an arrangement of wheel disc fitted with tyre & tube. But actual, wheel assembly is stands for the wheel hub, wheel rim, barrel and spokes/spiders/disc etc. Below fig is shows the types of wheel assemblies / structures (without tyre-&-tube) acc. to fittings.
A standard wheel consists of the RIM (outer lip that contacts the bead of tyre) and the SPIDER (center section that bolts to the vehicle hub). According to industrial automated manufacturing facilities, a "wheel assembly" is considering as the complete unit of the wheel fitted with tyre-tube assembly. Below figures shows the complete wheel or wheel assembly.
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| Complete Wheel |
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| Automated wheel assembly facility |
Automobile car or any wheeled vehicle having a wheel-assembly. The wheel-assembly as related to wheeled vehicle running
on inflated tyres means the entire assembly from the central axle to the tyre.
A wheel assembly essentially consists of the following parts:
1 Hub or boss 2
Web or spokes
3 Rim or Flange 4
Axle or spindle
5 Brake assembly 6
Bearings
7 Holding keys 8
Hub cap
9 Flange bolts 10
Tube 11 Tyre
Below figure shows a simple representation of the wheel
assembly with all the important parts but not complete in itself. In
general, the wheel means the metal parts of the wheel-assembly without tyre,
tube, hub, bearings and the axle. [1]
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| Wheel Assembly : a cross-section view [1] |
Wheel fittings:
The wheel axle with the inner bearing and outer
bearing has a flange at its outer end. The pressed steel wheel is fixed on the
flange with hexagonal bolts. The brake drum is also attached to the flange. The
back (ing) plate to the brake assembly is fixed on the axle casing with bolts.
The hub cap (not shown in the figure) is fixed on the outer side of the wheel
assembly. The tube and tyre are slipped on to the wheel rim with the tube in
the completely deflated condition. [1]
Requirements of good wheels:
To accomplish different purposes, the automobile wheels should possess the following requirements.
- They must be structurally strong.
- To keep the unsprung weight to a minimum, they should be as light as possible.
- The material of the wheel should be anticorrosive and weather resisting.
- Wheels should be balanced, both statically and dynamically.
- They should be easily and quickly attachable and detachable.
Common wheel assemblies are follows:
- Wire/spoke wheel
- Disc wheel: For Passenger & Heavy-vehicle wheel
- Alloy wheel
Above automobile wheels are disuses on next article.
- Drop center
- Semi-drop center
- Safety
- Split
Most passenger car wheels are of
well, or drop-centre design. This design allows for tyre removal and fitting.
The removal and fitting of tyres should be carried out according to
manufactures instructions.
Passenger cars normally use rims
which are of well based, or drop-centre design. The drop center is used for
mounting and demounting the tyre onto the rim.
Split wheels:
The split wheel is made in the form of two dishes which fit back to back and are clamped by a separate outer ring of studs and nuts. The flanges of the discs thus give a seating for the type and clamp on the beads. The main advantage of the split wheel is that the tyre may be easily taken out of the wheel by unscrewing the nuts and separating the two discs.
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| Details of split wheel assembly |
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