Information One Should Know About Wire Wheels

By Anna Collins


A wire wheel is a kind of wheel in which the hub and rim are connected to each other using wires. It also goes by several other names such as tension-spoked, wire-spoked, and suspension wheels. In this case, suspension wheel does not have anything to do with vehicle suspension. Hence the two should not be confused. The working of wire wheels involves maintaining the shape of rims while supporting the load. They work similarly to tensioned flexible wires.

These products were invented in 1808 by an aeronautical engineer named George Cayley. Cayley made the proposal on how the wheel could function and its production but never applied for a patent on it. Someone named Theodore Jones was the one issued with the patent later in October of 1826 in London. A patent for using the product on bicycles was first issued to a French named Eugene Meyer in 1969.

Bicycles were the first items on which these products were first successfully used on commercially. Their use shortly followed the adoption of rubber tires and invention of bicycles. When they were introduced, a lot of improvements that lacked before were introduced. The first improvements were increased comfort and the mount of load that could be supported.

Important properties such as elasticity lacked in the older wood-made wheel, which made it insufficient in many ways. For instance, because elasticity lacked, absorption of road variations was poor. Several millions of suspension wheel commodities got manufactured yearly by early bicycle makers. They utilized crossed-spoke patterns mostly where crossings of adjacent spokes was dependent on how many spokes were available. However, two-cross, no-cross, and one-cross among other patterns still remained in wide use.

The common patterns named above are considered to have more strength and stability. They have been in use for more than a century and their use seems stable and probably increasing. Irregular patterns have been determined to be simply art forms with very little structural merit. The introduction of cast wheels that contain 5-6 rigid spokes started appearing in professional racing and the Olympic games in the 1980s. They are applied in time trial and similar specialized applications, but wire-spoked product remain in wide use.

Stainless steel is the main material used in production even though several other materials are also in use. Stainless steel is a preferred material because it is much stronger and elastic. Because of the strength of steel, the wheel remains un-deformed under great load. The Chinese have recently started producing products that are made from plastic.

A product varies in how many wires in can contain. The number can be very small or very large. The main determinant of the number of wires is use. Vehicles for instance would be expected to have products with more wires than in bicycles and motorcycles. Increasing the number of wheels often increase strength.

Beauty is one of the properties of these products. They are widely used on motorcycle because of their retro appearance. Today, the world has many producers who sell their products at different costs.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment