Wheel / Rim Identification

Steel wheels essentially consist of a wheel disc welded into an outer rim.

The rim serves as a seat for the tyre and the wheel disc connects the rim to the wheel hub. The wheel disc is often referred to as ‘wheel center’, ‘dish nave’ or ‘nave plate’. It is the part on which the stud holes are situated and sometimes ventilation holes, dependent on design.  Click on images to view larger.

There are three main categories of wheel:

Tubeless (15° drop centre),
Multi-piece and
Press on band (POB)

Tubeless (15° drop centre) – single running wheel

The nave plate is generally located within the rim. This type of wheel is most commonly used on trailers and plant machinery. The sketch below shows the cross section of a wheel with the mounting face located on the centre line of the rim, known as a ‘zero offset’ wheel.

Tubeless (15° drop centre) -twin type wheel

The dish nave protrudes the ‘front edge’ of the rim. This is known as a ‘twintype’ wheel and is commonly fiKed in single format on the front of a vehicle or in ‘twin’ format on the rear. The sketch below shows a cross section of two twin type wheels mounted ‘face to face’ on a hub.







 

Multi Piece Wheels

Most commonly used on Forklift trucks and Earthmoving vehicles. The diagrams below show a 3pc rim and a 5pc rim. They are also common in a 2pc rim (with a combined lockring, flange and advance band) and a 4pc rim (with a separate flange, advance band and lock ring)







 

Press-On-Band (POB) Wheels

Commonly used on forklift trucks in warehousing, as the square profile offers increased stability. The tyre is made of rubber, bonded onto a steel band. These are pressed onto the POB wheel. Available with stud configurations or with bearing centres.