CARIM - CARBON RIM PROJECT

CARIM is a project launched in January 2016 and coordinated by RIBA COMPOSITES S.r.l. and Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) with the collaboration of Università di Bologna (Italy) and Alpex Technologies Gmbh (Austria).

The objective of the project is to develop and commercialize a full carbon wheel manufactured in an automated preforming and HP-RTM process.

Funded by the EU Framework programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020, CARIM project aims to create a wheel that is 30-50% lighter than traditional materials such as aluminium, with the additional advantage of excellent advanced performance.

Research into lightweight materials and the related processes has become one of the main challenges in the automotive industry, and has led to the substitution of standard steel and aluminium with alternative materials. CFRPs (carbon fiber reinforced plastics) show superior mechanical characteristics with respect to lightweight potential.