Project Summary

This project is a feasibility study to investigate and develop next generation, sustainable, cost-effective and aerodynamic efficient, lightweight composite wheels for Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) to help meet the opportunities and challenges of the transition to net zero as per the Future of Freight Plan. With TROCAR, Carbon ThreeSixty intends to assess the feasibility, design and manufacture a subscale prototype of the world’s first filament wound aerodynamic efficient composite rim for HGVs. This wheel aims to be 50% lighter than the existing steel ones and with an aerodynamic efficient design contributing to the reduction of HGVs CO2 emissions.

Project Achievements

TROCAR was led by a team of experience engineers with extensive experience in filament winding applications and composite wheels. The activities started on the market research and technology mapping which helped positioning this technology in the market and potential new competitors in the space. Then the structural analysis work was conducted using a combination of filament winding specific software with composite wheel analysis tools. Finally, CTS conducted the tooling design, development and manufacturing of sub-scale and full-scale models of filament wound composite wheel. This included filament winding, preform and Resin Transfer Moulding development and culminated in a proof-of-concept demonstrator. A d m r s e T n s T

Conclusions

At the end of the project, TROCAR delivered one proof-of-concept composite wheel, developed a novel technology with a demonstrator validation and entered in a new market with a revolutionary technology that, to date, resulted in two customer enquiries related to composite wheels for HGVs. This transition to composite wheels in the HGVs sector brings significant environmental benefits that can go up to 3.48% reduction in CO2 emissions for a 7.5 tonne HGV. TROCAR enabled this technology to reach TRL4 and Carbon ThreeSixty to enter in a new market. CTS surely benefited from the TRIG programme and their funding onearly- stage R&D. Their support throughout the whole project was key to the success of TROCAR.

Next Steps

Carbon ThreeSixty (CTS) will conduct (through internal funding) further filament winding developments and non-destructive and destructive testing to further progress the TRL of this technology. This means manufacture and test the wound composite wheels in a relevant production environment. It will include different materials, higher winding speeds, different winding patterns, etc. to then understand its impact on the wheel’s behaviour under various testing. Further to this, CTS was awarded a three-year grant funded project led bya major British OEM to take this technology from TRL 5 to TRL 8. This project is focused on the underlying technology developed in TROCAR and applies it to the passenger vehicles sector. By Q4 2027, this will create 34 new jobs and result in almost £3m in revenue. This will allow production to start in Q1 2029 and place CTS as a key Tier 1 in the British automotive sector. In addition to this, CTS will work in the commercial composite wheels stream and develop the recent HGV wheels enquiries from two major OEMs.