Carbon composite wheel – SPE Automotive finalist
- SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Competition 2015 finalist – Category: Materials
- OEM Make & Model: 2015 Ford Motor Co. Ford Mustang Shelby sports car
- Tier Supplier/Processor: Carbon Revolution
- Material Supplier / Toolmaker: not stated / Carbon Revolution
- Material / Process: carbon fiber-reinforced composite /resin transfer molding
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Description: This is the first high-volume OEM carbon composite wheel designed to meet all OEM requirements and quality standards, and produced and sold with full warranty coverage. The one-piece wheel is molded by resin transfer molding over a dry carbon fiber preform, then fully infused with a proprietary resin. Hollow core spokes are designed to provide maximum wheel stiffness, and aluminum lug seats and backer plate sandwich the carbon composite structure for a robust joint. An embedded RFID chip in the spoke allows manufacturing and quality history for each wheel to be tracked. Weight and rotational inertia are significantly
reduced.