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In Reply to: Light Metal vs. Alloy (please read) posted by Ivo on March 12, 2000 at 19:31:48:
If we go to the "racers encyclopidia of metals fibers and materials" we find that light metal is aluminum alloy, magnesium alloy, titanium alloy, berylium alloy, mag-lithium alloy. 99.9 % of alloy wheels are likely to be aluminum alloy SAE6061 HT0. 99 % of steel wheels are likeley to be carbon steel SAE1020 CR. It has to be an alloy with high elongation. steel, aluminum and magnesium alloys all have the same specific stiffness (stiffness per pound in cross section). But, the reason aluminum wheels weigh less for the same breaking strength as their steel counterpart is because a wheel is used in bending and the square of the thickess rule dominates the stress calculations as opposed to pure tensile stress which is not by the square of thickness. Magnesium wheels provide such a small additional saveings in weight over aluminum that no one uses it on the street, and considering it has 3 other nasty problems.
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