Thanks to its delivery of low-CO2 steel wheel options to commercial vehicle manufacturers and fleets, Maxion Wheels says it is “ahead of the curve on carbon footprint savings.” But the world’s largest wheel manufacturer anticipates that by 2025, it will be able to offer steel commercial vehicle wheels with a cradle-to-gate carbon footprint more than 65 per cent lower than current wheels.
Although Maxion Wheels is setting up a new facility for manufacturing forged aluminium commercial vehicle wheels, its traditional strength is steel wheels. Expansions in Turkey and Brazil have increased the company’s global capacity for these products to ten million pieces annually, and Maxion has now debuted what it claims is “Europe’s lightest mass-produced steel truck wheel.” The first of these lightweight wheels arrives in size 22.5 x 11.75.
The truck steel wheel plant that Maxion Wheels and Inci Holding have jointly built in Turkey is ready to open, and during last week’s IAA Transportation show the two companies additionally announced plans to set up a facility for manufacturing aluminium commercial vehicle wheels. Maxion Wheels says adding forged aluminium commercial vehicle wheels “rounds out” its globally leading steel wheels portfolio, making Maxion a “one-stop option for truck and trailer manufacturers.”
Maxion Wheels, the world’s largest wheel manufacturer, intends to share its commercial vehicle wheel growth strategy, including new product and sustainability solutions, at the IAA Transportation 2022 show in Germany. The company will elaborate on these subjects during a press conference at its exhibition space on Tuesday 20 September.
Maxion Wheels has joined non-profit bodies the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) and ResponsibleSteel, and claims as such to be the first wheel manufacturer to become a member of these organisations committed to the responsible sourcing, production and use of aluminium and steel.
In markets where green electricity is not readily available from the grid, on-site solar power generation is an important way of bridging the green energy gap. The Maxion Wheels Saraburi plant in central Thailand is the company’s first to use solar energy to decarbonise aluminium wheel production.
In autumn 2020, global tyre and wheel assembler Taskmaster Components introduced the Vesper by Maxion Wheels, a complete line-up of steel trailer wheels developed with and manufactured by Maxion Wheels. The two companies have now announced a three-year extension to their supply agreement.
In order to optimise the efficiency of its aluminium wheel production facility in Limeira, Brazil, Maxion Wheels has created a virtual replica of the plant’s production processes. By employing ‘Digital Twin’ technology, the world’s largest wheel manufacturer can anticipate how the actual plant performs under specific conditions, thereby ensuring it achieves the highest levels of efficiency and efficacy. Maxion now intends to roll out the technology at other facilities around the world.
Reporting on its response to the fire that broke out at its plant in Manresa, Spain on Monday, Maxion Wheels shares that the company’s Incident Management Team is on site today to “oversee fire damage restoration.” Depending on circumstances, some production may resume there as soon as next week.
Conflicting reports on the damage to Maxion Wheels’ Manresa plant in Spain are currently circulating. While local news sources suggest that the fire that broke out in the facility on Monday has completely halted production and will affect it for some time, comment from Maxion Wheels challenges the veracity of these reports. The wheel manufacturer intends to issue an official statement on the matter in due course.
Firefighters have extinguished a blaze at the Maxion Wheels light vehicles steel wheel plant in Manresa, Spain. According to local media sources, the fire service received a call to the site at 6:45pm yesterday afternoon. They had brought the fire under control by 8:30pm. While there are no reported injuries, four pieces of plant machinery are apparently affected. The factory building’s roof has also sustained some damage.
Maxion Wheels reports that construction and infrastructure work for its new Maxion Jantaş commercial vehicle (CV) steel wheel plant in Manisa, Turkey is now complete. The wheel manufacturer and local partner Inci Holding anticipate that the 21,000 square metre facility will be complete in the first quarter of 2022 and will increase Maxion Jantaş’ total production capacity to up to three million CV steel wheels a year.
Wheel and automotive structural components manufacturer Iochpe-Maxion has entered into a strategic partnership with Stuttgart-based global innovation platform Startup Autobahn. Founding members of Startup Autobahn welcomed Iochpe-Maxion and other new partners to the ever-growing network during EXPO 9, a virtual event held on 25 February.
The Acorus wheel, which Michelin and Maxion Wheels first presented as a prototype at the IAA 2017 motor show in Frankfurt, is coming to market next year. Michelin announced the flexible wheel solution’s commercial launch at the China International Import Expo (CIIE), which opened in Shanghai on 4 November.
It’s a little over a year since Maxion Wheels and ZF Openmatics announced they’d teamed up to develop the Smart Wheel, and Maxion now reports that road testing of this connectivity solution will commence in 2020. During the Ioche-Maxion Investor Day 2020, held online yesterday, Maxion Wheels’ chief executive officer confirmed that Smart Wheel prototypes would be on the road before the end of the year.
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