Alcoa Wheel & Transportation Products says the Ultra One is the world's lightest heavy-duty truck wheel that will help trucks shed pounds for increased payload and fuel efficiency.
The 40-pound wheel is 47% lighter than steel wheels of the same size, notes Alcoa, and the Ultra One can help save up to 1,400 pounds per rig, enabling fleets to carry more goods while meeting stringent federal emissions regulations.
"Alcoa continues to reinvent the wheel. Our new innovation is heavy-duty without the 'heavy,' and it looks great, too," said Tim Myers, president, Alcoa Wheel and Transportation Products.
"Alcoa's unique mix of manufacturing, technology and lightweight metals expertise enabled this breakthrough. Major fleets, such as TMC Transportation, are already lining up to take advantage of it."
Alcoa says fleets have increasingly converted to aluminum wheels that offset the weight of necessary pollution-control equipment used to meet federal emissions regulations. Lighter wheels also improve fuel economy, making up for rising fuel prices and helping move goods in a cleaner way.
And if trucks burn less fuel, they emit fewer greenhouse gases. Replacing steel wheels with aluminum wheels on an 18-wheeler offsets the annual carbon footprint of an average family of four in America. In addition, Alcoa's aluminum wheels are six times brighter than competitors' wheels, giving them strong aesthetic appeal, and because they are corrosion resistant and do not require stripping and repainting, lower operators' maintenance and operating costs.
To take out five pounds out of its lightest heavy-duty truck wheel, Alcoa's experts at the Alcoa Technical Center invented a new alloy, the patent-pending MagnaForce alloy that is on average 17% stronger than the industry standard, Alcoa's 6061 alloy, in similar applications.
