The rim blades also weren’t attractive as lots of people say they fling off and weren’t strong enough to take the hit. That’s why drivers are looking for ways to shield their alloys. Many are turning to alloy wheel rim protectors, which guard the edges of your alloys, to prevent damage. But, what are they, and do they work? We’ve got all the information you need to know. What are alloy wheel rim protectors? One of the earliest recorded accounts of rim driven fan technology for aerospace applications took place in 1961 when the Ryan Aircraft Corporation developed the XV-5A Vertifan aircraft. The XV-5A fans were pneumatically driven by jet engine exhaust gasses acting on turbine blades located around the periphery of the aircraft’s lift producing fans. Although the fan technology was deemed a success the rim drive element was halted, and the fan design went on to be developed for the General Electric CF6 high by-pass engine designs. Rimsavers are predominantly designed for the modern flat rimmed wheels common today, but will fit rims with a very slight curve if they have a sharp or squared off top edge. They are perfect on most Diamond Cut wheel designs.

Wrexham Glyndwr University Dr ROB BOLAM CEng FRAeS and Doctoral Research Assistant JHON PAUL ROQUE provide an insight into the Faculty of Art, Science and Technology’s patented prototype rim-driven ‘FAST-Fan’ electrical jet engine. Rimblades® Ultra are best suited to diamond cut & flat faced or flat lipped wheels. As they are rubber based they can cope with a gentle curved edge to the rim. In basic terms, Rimblades® Ultra are a D shaped profile with a fitting guide lip at the top. Achieving a low-weight, high-strength and an efficient design was the greatest challenge. From the project outset it was critical to get an accurate prediction of the FAST-Fan’s torque versus speed characteristic, so that the motor circuit design would not be too powerful and heavy for its intended purpose. CFD was used to numerically model the flow through the energiser unit and Motor-CAD and FE (finite element) software was used to model the electromagnetic circuits and analyse the rotor stresses.The aerodynamic fan blade profiles for modern aircraft are proprietary in nature and information is difficult to access. But such fan blades are often optimised to operate at super-sonic speeds such as 450 m/s, which is much higher than those anticipated for the FAST-Fan with sub-sonic operational air speeds closer to 200 m/s. Climate Change has resulted from the use of engineered devices and is likely to be solved in this way too. Seemingly the challenges that lie on route to a Net Zero 2050 are surmountable, provided that the aviation community works in a spirit of collaboration and openness. So which is better? We fitted Alloygators on the driver’s side of our test car and Rimblades on the passenger side to find out. Looking at wider applications, it became evident that there was a compelling case for the adoption of rim-driven technology for larger aircraft. The results of a comparative study between the theoretical dual-stage RDF and an existing modern small fan-jet engine indicated that, as a thruster device, the RDF offers a compact and lightweight alternative to small fan-jet engines. It will operate at much lower core temperatures than a jet engine and is likely to be lighter in weight, more efficient, easier to monitor and control, quieter and offer much greater values of specific thrust. The next steps involve the design and modelling of an efficient high-thrust (≈10kN) high-speed (up to sonic airspeed), zero-emission rim-driven propulsion device for regional passenger, distributed thrust BWB business aircraft and even high-speed hovercraft applications.

Self-adhesive rim protectors also come in different types. Depending on the shape of your alloys, some fit alloys with flat edges, while others are designed for rounded and curved rims. Conventional civil aircraft use propellors for regional operations to attain speeds of up to Mach 0.6 and altitudes ranging up to 30,000ft but for longer journeys that require higher speeds and altitudes (up to Mach 0.9 and 45,000ft) ducted by-pass fans are used. Both technologies are hub driven with the main propulsive airflow passing over a central energising unit, namely the gas turbine engine, and the propulsive drives being transmitted via rotating shafts.Compressor blade profiles were considered more suitable for this application and fortunately the profile and performance data was openly available. A standard C-Series blade profile was finally selected and, based on this, a low aspect ratio (<1.5) fan blade was developed to ensure maximum energy transfer to the airflow, whilst maintaining a minimal frontal intake area. Bladed rotor (“Bloter”)

As part of the Welsh Government’s SMARTExpertise programme, the FAST-Fan is one of the last projects to be funded via the European Regional Development Fund. WGU has collaborated with six UK based SMEs (Ad-Manum UAS Technologies Ltd, Invertek Drives Ltd, Motor Design Ltd., Drone-Flight Ltd, Geola Technologies Ltd and Tirius Ltd) to provide the analyses, design and manufacture of a patented prototype rim-driven, ‘FAST-Fan’ electrical jet aircraft engine. The resulting propulsion unit is capable of delivering more thrust per frontal area and higher efflux velocities than current fan configurations. Project aim

Lug Nut Covers

Protect your alloy wheel rims from kerb damage and cover up existing marks using our easy to fit, self-adhesive alloy wheel protectors. The new Rimblades® Original are made from Santoprene by Exxon Mobil (appearance of hard rubber) with a micro fine wire core to prevent expansion or contraction due to extreme temperatures. Rimblades® Original have a genuine 3M GTE6208 Automotive grade VHB tape factory applied to the rear side. They are available in 9 colours. Wrexham Glyndwr University also welcomes collaborations with industry, universities, and research organisations. This project was funded by the Welsh Government (WEFO) under the SMARTExpertise initiative (Project Reference 82321) and supported by the European Regional Development Fund.