Revolutionary Aluminium Alloy wheel debuts: Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto, the global mining and metals production firm says it has started securing orders for its new aluminium alloy wheel known as Revolution-AI.

As per the company’s communication, researchers at its Arvida Research and Development Centre in Quebec, Canada, have spent more than 5 years in developing a car wheel alloy, which can be considered stronger and also reduces fuel consumption, improves safety and handling and succeeding “an industry-standard no one had better for more than four decades.”

In September’19, London-based Tinto obtains its first order for the new Revolution-AI alloy and it has been designed in a way so that it can be easily recycled and it can also be used at the existing wheel-manufacturing plant.

Jerome Fourmann, who is a technical director at Rio Tinto states “We wanted to offer automakers a new, innovative alloy that allowed them, through styling and design, to reduce the weight of the wheels, which is very important to improving fuel efficiency – because, in the end, people want to drive not just the safest but also the greenest and most innovative cars”.

The Revolution-Al’s main development is that it is 15% to 20% robust than the current predominant alloy wheel, A356.2 and this transforms to a 7% weight reduction and superior fuel cost-effectiveness or battery range, says the organization.

Also, Rio Tinto says, Revolution-Al can be cast in existing facilities and wheel production time also gets reduced, hence it deducts the cost and increases the rate of production.

Rio Tinto Industrial Product and Investment Director Jean-Francois Laplante, says “The current wheel alloy has been around for a long time and now we’re coming to the market with a new way of doing things.”