Balance weights fit into wheel rims
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• To prevent loss of balance weights from lightweight wheel rims and hide the weights, Autotechnik Geiger has developed a rim ring out of Du Pont's Minion engineering thermoplastic resin.
The rim ring contains no metal reinforcement, but the resin is claimed to keep it in place on bumpy roads and when heated by brakes.
The balance weights are not pressed into the rim flange as in conventional wheels, but fit into a groove where they are held firmly without damaging the rim. The ring of Minion conceals the weights and ensures that they do not spin loose.
The wheel rim is of aluminium and the ring was originally designed in the same metal. Production of such a thin, flat part was difficult, and resins proved unsuccessful because the ring did not fit well enough or tended to came loose because of beat from the brakes. But Minion passed all of Geiger's test.
The type selected. Minion 13T1. is a 30% mineralreinforced, toughened nylon 66. Its properties include good recovery, low creep, high thermal resistance and stiffness, as well as excellent impact resistance at low temperature.
GEIGER 147