BORBET SHOWS HOW TO MAKE BIG PROGRESS WITH SMALL INSERTS.

In times of sustainability debates and CO2 limits, car manufacturers are increasingly focusing on the wheel. After all, wheels determine not only the "look and feel" of a vehicle but also its driving characteristics and fuel consumption. Above all, weight and aerodynamics are currently the most influential parameters for fuel consumption and CO2 emissions or for the range that is so decisive for e-vehicles. Depending on the vehicle concept, this can ideally even be increased by up to 15%, and air resistance plays the all-important role. In principle, smaller wheels are more wind-cheating than larger ones, but a wheel with a larger diameter also reduces the rolling resistance or the contact area of the tyre.

Besides size, there are other ways to improve driving characteristics - and they are in the details. For example, in an aerodynamically completely closed wheel design, where the cooling of the brakes is not neglected. BORBET has developed a new concept in which small, intelligent inserts play a major role. A second concept shows solutions for using sustainable inserts made from renewable raw materials.

How this can fundamentally and sustainably change wheel development is demonstrated by the wheel experts from BORBET with these two concepts, which they will present to the world at TIRE COLOGNE 2022:

New Driving Coolness with BORBET ACTIVE AERO WHEEL

This wheel concept combines the factors of wheel weight, aerodynamics and brake cooling and ensures a completely new performance through automatically closing insert flaps.
The wheel as the basic carrier has been stylistically redesigned and optimised in production by the weight-reducing lightweight construction technologies FlowForming and Undercut. The wheel weight in the 8.0x19 inch size is now only 9.2 kg. Ten inserts ensure a 100% closed wheel surface and enable maximum flow optimisation. To cool down the brakes, five inserts are opened during driving by means of thermal actuators. This revolutionary technology ensures the corresponding "driving coolness".

More sustainability through NATURAL FIBER INSERTS

The sustainability of BORBET light alloy wheels is currently proven, for example, by the ASI certification and the GOLD award from ecovadis. In February 2022, BORBET became the first wheel manufacturer in the world to have all its production sites certified by the ASI. The decisive factor here is, among other things, the sustainable handling of the raw material aluminium in the production of a wheel. This commitment to more sustainability is now being continued with aerodynamic inserts. The i-ATX concept wheel with NATURAL FIBRE INSERTS fulfils our claim by using renewable raw materials. The special AERO inserts are woven from a flax material, as known from the "carbon" sector, and therefore consist of a regenerative natural material. Similar to carbon components, these inserts have a very appealing sporty look and a low product weight with maximum stability.

The i-ATX wheel weighs only 14.7 kg and meets high wheel or axle loads. It optimises the flow around the wheel and thus makes the car more wind-friendly. The NATURAL FIBER INSERTS show how sustainably innovative and forward-looking the use of new materials can be and that the visual appearance is not neglected either.