Failure analysis of cracking in wheel rims - material and manufacturing aspects

Manufacturing of wheel in automotive industries demands no-flaw wheels. However, process as well as material deficiency in varying ratios of influence has been the counteracting factors in producing flawless wheel components. Tube and tubeless wheels for light and medium commercial vehicles are manufactured by cold forming of slit hot rolled strips from low carbon steel with or without micro alloying. During manufacturing and forming of the strips, cracking of wheel rims is a major problem at the production line. The paper discusses about one of the failure types in wheel rims, where the wheel rim thins down locally and cracks at the weld. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.