Cover Story
November-December issue l 2021
The Role of Automotive Tires and Wheels
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hat is the first automotive product that was not invented by man but created by Nature? Automotive Tires and Wheels, of course! The parts of a car are as diverse as the components that build it and one of the parts that have undergone the most changes in design since the advent of the internal combustion engine is the tire. The invention of the air-cooled piston stroke and the discovery of the rubber tree (which gave rise to a whole new line of parts for cars) changed the face of automobile technology forever. Before we discuss the role of Automotive Tires and Wheels, we need to know a little bit about the wheel itself. A wheel can be divided into two parts, the inner tube rim and the outer tube hub. The inner tube rim is a flat, concave material that is made out of steel or aluminum and it has channels running down its length that carry a lubricant. On the other hand, the outer tube hub is much wider and it consists mainly of a rubber compound that is heavily pressed into the 22
Africa Automotive News l 2021
