As a vehicle wheel made of light metal such as an aluminum alloy and a magnesium alloy, there have been widely put to practical use three kinds of vehicle wheels, specifically, a one piece type vehicle wheel which is formed as an integrally molded article as a whole, a two piece type vehicle wheel which includes two components, specifically, a cylindrical rim and a disk which is attached to the inside of the rim, and a three piece type vehicle wheel which includes three components, specifically, a cylindrical inner rim, a cylindrical outer rim, and a disk which is attached to the inside of the connected part between the rims.
Advantageously, the one piece type wheel has higher strength and rigidity than the two piece type wheel or the three piece type wheel, and can be manufactured at low cost. However, disadvantageously, adjustment of the offset amount of the disk is not easy in the one piece type wheel, and the one piece type wheel has inferior design.
Since a vehicle wheel has not only a function as a wheel, but also a large influence on the design of a vehicle, vehicle wheels of various designs have been proposed. For example, there have been proposed a vehicle wheel that is configured to have a high-class feeling by attaching a decorative pierce bolt to a rim of a one piece wheel so as to be decorated like a two piece wheel or a three piece wheel and a vehicle wheel that is manufactured in such a manner that the entire spoke of the vehicle wheel is coated with a coating material having a first color, the side surface of the spoke is then partially shaved to allow a metal surface to be exposed, and a color clear coating material having a second color that allows the first color to appear substantially as it is when being applied to a region which is coated with the first-color coating material and clearly appears when being applied to a region in which the metal surface is exposed is further applied to the entire spoke including the exposed metal surface (see Patent Document 1, for example).
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds