Steel has good market prospects for inner tube wheels

I. Overview of Wheel Product Status Current major product types of automotive wheels are classified into three categories: tubeless wheels for passenger cars (passenger cars); tubeless wheels for commercial vehicles; and tire wheels for commercial vehicles (steel). The first two are divided into steel wheels and aluminum wheels, which are also available in aluminum alloys in rare cases.

Second, analysis of the use of commercial vehicle wheels from the perspective of safe energy-saving environmental protection and the direction of the development of technology, no tube wheels are the direction of development, compared with steel tubes and inner tubes, which belongs to advanced products. In particular, the internalization of light trucks should attract the attention of the industry and it will become a new economic growth point. In fact, developed countries such as Europe, the United States, Japan, and Japan have essentially eliminated the steel wheels of inner tubes.

In recent years, with the development of tubeless wheels, user acceptance, and improvement of road transportation management, the proportion of tireless wheels on commercial vehicles in China has gradually increased. However, based on the current situation of China's specific use, the steel tube wheels will also coexist for a long period of time with a certain proportion of non-tube wheels, and its main influencing factors include overload, road conditions, vehicle models, and maintenance.

Third, the shape of the steel wheel with the use of the wheel 1, the model is currently equipped with steel models with inner tube wheels are mainly at both ends: light vehicles and heavy vehicles.

Due to the design and manufacturing process characteristics of the tubeless wheels, the product's anti-overload capability is poor. Once it exceeds the design load, it will immediately fail, causing deformation or even fracture. The shape of the inner tube wheel due to its processing technology (the shape of the rim is rolled out), can be partially strengthened according to the force conditions, although this is inconsistent with the lightweight of the wheel, but after all, the market has this demand. ,

Therefore, heavy-duty trucks, due to their characteristics of use, such as short-haul, heavy-duty, low-speed, etc., most of the models are still equipped with steel wheels with inner tubes, and they are basically all reinforced.

Because of its own characteristics of use, light vehicles are mainly short-haul, light-load, and low-speed. Therefore, factors such as light weight and safety of wheels have not yet fully entered into the user's main considerations. But in the future it is imperative to enter the tubeless stage before heavy vehicles enter.

In addition, the wheels of construction machinery, mining vehicles, loading machinery, etc., are currently basically steel-type wheels with inner tubes.

2. Road conditions In addition to highways and national highways, other rural roads, mountain roads, mine roads, etc. are not suitable for the use of tubeless wheels, because it is very easy to cause different degrees of damage to the wheels and tires. Therefore, poor road conditions are also the reason why wheel tires are still widely used in China.

3, operating conditions refers to the current domestic overload phenomenon. At present, except for expressways and light vehicles, there are few trucks that are not overloaded. This is one of the reasons why tire wheels are widely used in the aftermarket.

Another phenomenon is the use of overtime limit. It is often seen on the road that some tires have no pattern or even exposed cords but are still in use. Because the tire does not bear the sealing effect, the tireless wheel and the tire cannot adapt to such conditions.

4. Maintenance of tubeless wheels and tires require special equipment (ie, tires dismantling and disassembling), and the maintenance requirements are relatively high. In areas with poor conditions and roads, or drivers themselves, it is impossible to dismantle and repair wheelless wheels. The profiled steel wheels are relatively simple, with two people, a sledgehammer, and a crowbar.

4. Forecast of demand From the perspective of the ratio of commercial vehicles in China in 2013, the ratio of heavy vehicles and light vehicles to commercial vehicles accounted for 18.87% and 46.99%, respectively, which totaled more than 65%. The proportion is still quite large.

Based on this ratio and the total vehicle sales volume in 2014 (4.2 million commercial vehicles), it can be deduced that the demand for profiled steel wheels for inner tubes is approximately 22.48 million pieces. Considering the needs of the aftermarket replacement market, the total number can exceed 23 million pieces. .