Bloodhound SSC Wheel Manufacture

[driver67]

Hi All,

Officially announced today, company I work for will be manufacturing the wheels for the Bloodhound SSC 1000 mph land speed record.

Had Richard Noble and his team on-site today with the full scale model.

Exciting time for all in work. We get our full logo on the centre of all wheels.

The project is now active in over 215 countries.

Couple of pics from this morning :-


Me posing :-



Bloodhound Simulator :-



Workforce presentation :-



Machine that will manufacture behind the car :-

[tog]

Cool Without meaning to demean what you do, is each wheel essentially one big lump of very carefully machined metal?

[Vocal Minority]

Is it just the wheels, or the enitre hub assembly?

Still awesome to be involved though

[tuffer]

That is awesome, this is going to be a monumental project.

[ikarl]

tog said:

very carefully machined metal?

I think you've under-used the words 'very' and 'carefully' there.

[TonyHetherington]

That's excellent!

Can you share info on the wheels - their design, what they're made of etc? How many will you have to make?

[Sparta VAG]

driver67 said:

Workforce presentation :-

I'd be wary of the lone guy on the front row trying to stand out by wearing a different coloured shirt to everyone else. A dangerous subversive.

[ikarl]

doogz said:

What are they being made from? Ti? Al? Something more exotic?

Gold pressed latinum?

[jeremyc]

Bloodhound SSC site said:

In BLOODHOUND’s case, the wheels will need to support the 6-7 tonnes of the Car’s weight between them and rotate at up to over 10 000 RPM – which will induce stresses of around 50 000 times the force of gravity (or ‘g’) at the wheel rims.

This sort of load requires extremely strong wheels – Thrust SSC opted for forged Aluminium to cope with around 35 000g, and BLOODHOUND initially considered using Titanium wheels to endure 50 000g at 1000 mph. This raised a further problem – if we have to use solid wheels, what sort of surfaces can they run on?

With the desert search programme completed, a decision could be made on the wheels - and like ThrustSSC and Thrust2, they are to be made from Aluminium. For further reading, please see The Wheel Story So Far.

The Wheel Story So Far.

[MX7]

So virtually every country in the world contributes?

[Big Rod]

Saw the car at the Riverside museum on Saturday. Very impressive.

[driver67]

MX7 said:

So virtually every country in the world contributes?

Sponsors have been signed up in every country in the world (bar 17).

Schools worldwide are being welcomed to join in the project.

Amazing stuff.

[driver67]

ikarl said:

Gold pressed latinum?

Aluminium for various reasons. Titanium for the wheels would cost in excess of £350,000.

We are experts in the production of various components of the Rolls Royce 'Trent' family of aerospace engines.

The manufacturing techniques involved with the wheels are very similar to the 'spacer' components of these engines.

[driver67]

Sparta VAG said:

I'd be wary of the lone guy on the front row trying to stand out by wearing a different coloured shirt to everyone else. A dangerous subversive.

That's Richard Noble !

[Vocal Minority]

driver67 said:

Sparta VAG said:

I'd be wary of the lone guy on the front row trying to stand out by wearing a different coloured shirt to everyone else. A dangerous subversive.

That's Richard Noble !

So a dangerous subversive then?

[jatinder]

jeremyc said:

The Wheel Story So Far.

Nankangs?

[thinfourth2]

driver67 said:

Exciting time for all in work. We get our full logo on the centre of all wheels.

Well machine a flat bit on the bottom so it always stops with the logo the right way up

No one will notice

[Leptons]

jatinder said:

Nankangs?

P6000's

How many Spares?

[lyonspride]

thinfourth2 said:

driver67 said:

Exciting time for all in work. We get our full logo on the centre of all wheels.

Well machine a flat bit on the bottom so it always stops with the logo the right way up

No one will notice

Loooooool, not convinced on that one......

How about weighted spinners!?!?!?

[crocodile tears]

driver67 said:

Aluminium for various reasons. Titanium for the wheels would cost in excess of £350,000.

sounds like a great project to be involved with