Since passenger cars require five wheels including a spare, the weight reduction of wheels without sacrificing performance is important. Recently, the structural components of cars made of steel are replaced by composites, plastics and other light metallic materials such as aluminum and magnesium for weight reduction. From these new tried materials, fiber reinforced polymeric composites are most promising due to their high specific stiffness and specific strength. The composites manufactured by resin transfer molding (RTM) process has not only low cost for the manufacturing but also reduces the lead time for development because the molds for RTM is easy to manufacture and the pressure required is very low.
In this work, the fiber reinforced polymeric composite wheels for passenger cars were designed and manufactured by RTM process and their performances were evaluated experimentally. Since the surface quality of wheels is important for passenger cars, the optimal stacking sequence for composite wheels was selected considering surface quality and mechanical properties. The flow analysis during the resin filling into the fiber perform was performed to locate the injection gate and vent holes. Also, the manufacturing method for the composite mold was depicted.
