The wheel

From wood to aluminium

History

The wheel - it has been with us since the year 4000 BC, giving us many opportunities and getting us from A to B more quickly. Starting with wooden or stone wheels for carts or millstones and grindstones, wheels continued to progress and were adapted to withstand stresses, right up to the materials most frequently used in today's vehicles such as steel, aluminium and plastics. In terms of durability, weight and design, these materials offer a wide variety compared with their wooden predecessors.

Structural durability and breakage safety

The structural durability and breakage safety of a wheel has never been as important as it is today. A wheel must be able to withstand the stress of everyday use or special loads specific to different clients i.e. a wheel must be able to cover distances of several hundreds of thousands of kilometres without damage.

Designing wheels with LBF®.WheelStrength

How to design a wheel that can withstand the high stresses and satisfy current design and weight requirements? LBF®.WheelStrength, the software for numerical structural durability analysis of wheels and wheel-related components, offers you the solution. More on the development, origins and potential uses of the software can be found on the following pages.