The speed of wheel hub technology development for the modern vehicle, with weight saving and safety at the forefront, has meant changes for suppliers of wheel components too. First Line’s aftermarket range of wheel bearings reflect a decade of significant changes with the original single-row ball/taper roller bearings undergoing three generations of evolution to cater for the advance in automotive technology.
National Auto Parts, the clutch and brake specialist, has launched its new wheel hub bearing kits range, further increasing its UK and European car parc coverage to more than 95 per cent.
Backed by a two-year/20,000-mile guarantee, the range features 50 new part numbers for front and rear, covering 100 applications from some of the world’s largest vehicle manufacturers, including Volvo, BMW, Peugeot and Ford.
Motor Wheel Service Distribution (MWSD) has welcomed the Department for Transport’s report into wheel safety and the government’s classification of CV wheels as ‘safety critical’. However the company remains sceptical of the report’s findings and industry awareness of the issue. MWSD has long campaigned for legislation requiring operators to carry out more stringent checks on commercial vehicle wheels to be introduced.
Motor Wheel Service Distribution’s (MWSD) commercial vehicle wheel safety campaign has been successfully incorporated in the new European Union (EU) Roadworthiness Package, which will become law in May 2014. The new law, adopted by both the European Parliament and European Council, states: “compatibility between parts and components, such as between wheels and wheel hubs, should be treated as a critical safety item and should be checked during roadworthiness testing.”
Kumho Tires has put its hand to creating a concept car, or at least a concept for a concept car, and the result is a vehicle that uses tyres not only in places you’d expect to find them. The Epoch Concept, as the car has been named, features a chassis made from bamboo and body panels from recycled tyre tread rubber – both features intended to offset the vehicle’s carbon footprint. Propulsion is planned as taking place – bearing in mind that so far the Epoch exists only at the idea stage and is not actually a working concept – by means of Magnetic Levitation units integrated into each of the vehicle’s four wheel hubs; these would purportedly generate zero friction and allow for maximum torque.
