HRE Wheels and GE Additive (
www.ge.com/additive) recently announced a partnership agreement and unveiled their first titanium wheel created using EBM (electron beam melting) technology.
Known as HRE3D+, this new prototype wheel shows what “the future of wheel technology will bring” and how advanced materials like titanium can be used to create complex designs.
HRE says that with a traditional aluminium ‘Monoblok’ wheel, 80% of the material is removed from a 100lb forged block of aluminium to create the final product, whereas with additive manufacturing, only 5% of the material
is removed — and it is recycled, making the process far more efficient.
Titanium also has a much higher specific strength than aluminium; it is also corrosion-resistant, allowing it to be shown in its raw finish.
There was an intensive design collaboration between the HRE team in Vista (California) and GE Additive’s AddWorks team in Ohio. Using design cues from two existing models of HRE wheels, they worked together to create an example of what is possible with AM.
The wheel was produced on two Arcam EBM machines — a Q20 and a Q10 — in five separate sections, then combined using a custom-designed centre section and titanium fasteners.
HRE (
www.hrewheels.com) president Alan Peltier said: “This is an incredibly exciting and important project for us, as we get a glimpse into what the future of wheel design holds.
“Working with GE Additive’s AddWorks team gave us access to the latest additive technology, allowing us to push the boundaries of wheel design beyond anything possible with current methods.”