510 Series magnesium motorcycle wheel that was on display last month at National Manufacturing Week is the largest Thixomolded part in production, there is no question they are impressive. Launching the wheel last year, the manufacturer is a Thixomat licensee and shared its Donald E. Stephens Convention Center booth with that company, and its director of engineering, Ralph Vining.

Vining told MPW that including Durrani, it has added some other North American licensees of late, including Ontario firm Cana-Datum Moulds Ltd., but the bulk of the activity has been in Asia and focused on electronics markets.

As for the wheel, Durrani’s website says Thixomolding gives the wheels an internal grain structure similar to forging, as well as a finer surface detail than would be seen with die casting. The company uses a proprietary magnesium alloy, which offers strength and ductility, so the wheels literally bend before they break, maximizing safety.

Durrani says traditional forging has higher costs, due to multiple dies and scrap rates from machining up to 47%. By comparison, it says Thixomolding has less scrap, cheaper tooling, and faster outputs. Durrani said the result is a wheel that is comparable to a forged magnesium one, but with the cost of a conventional cast-aluminum wheel.

By June 2007, Durrani had completed its fourth batch of Thixomolded wheel cores, bringing the total made to more than 300. The company has X-rayed the wheels to look for voids and seen no internal porosity. After initially offering Thixomolded wheelcores that were mated to an extruded and ring-rolled AZ80 magnesium rim, Durrani is not Thixomolding the core and rim. The 510 Series with integral sprocket carrier, magnesium hubs, and cush drive come in at 6.8 lb for the front and 10.8 lb for the rear wheel, with a retail price of $1298. [email protected]