World première: Braided carbon wheels

Porsche has become the world’s first vehicle manufacturer to produce lightweight wheels with braided carbon fibre. They will be available as an option for the Porsche 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series.

Protected by a layer of clear lacquer that shows off the high-tech material’s characteristically black appearance, the innovative wheels are not only lighter than standard alloys – Porsche reports that a set of four weighs around 8.5 kilogrammes or 20 per cent less than standard alloy wheels – they are also 20 per cent stronger. With a reduced unsprung weight, the car’s tyres thus trail the surface of the road better and are perfectly optimised for absorbing longitudinal and lateral forces. Lower rotating masses mean more spontaneity both in acceleration and braking. The result is increased driving dynamics and driving pleasure.

Manufactured entirely from carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP), the wheel is essentially comprised of two components. The wheel centre is made from carbon-fibre fabric, its construction requiring the cutting and assembling over 200 individual components. The second component is the rim base, which is made from braided carbon fibre using what is, with a diameter of approximately nine metres, currently the world’s largest carbon fibre braiding machine.

The centre is then braided into the rim base, and the assembled wheel impregnated with resin and pre-hardened at high pressure and high temperatures. After this the finished wheel is cured at high temperatures followed by a long cooling process, and the central lock is then inserted into the finished wheel and the wheel protected with clear lacquer.

Porsche is the first automotive industry company anywhere in the world to use what it says is an “extremely complex technology.” The braiding technology offers key advantages over the more conventional method of manufacturing pre-impregnated carbon-fibre fabric: This production technique results in the carbon’s material structure being considerably denser and more compact, thereby increasing rigidity. A more efficient use of the material also produces less waste. The new carbon wheel is made from a total of 18 kilometres of carbon fibre as well as eight square metres of carbon-fibre fabric.

The new carbon wheels will be available as an option for the 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series from the beginning of 2018 in size 9 J x 20 for the front axle and 11.5 J x 20 for the rear.