DALLAS, TX. Alcoa Wheel Products will replace its current truck wheel offerings with a new Dura-Bright product enhanced with XBR Technology.
XBR is a chemical formulation that binds with the aluminum to increase reflectivity by 53% and image clarity by 73%, thus significantly reducing the amount of cleaning and polishing needed for aluminum wheels, Alcoa said.
"Our trucking customers not only wanted to keep the advantages of aluminum wheels—40% lighter than steel and 4.5 times stronger—but wanted to make them as maintenance- free as possible," said Kevin Kramer, president of Alcoa Wheel Products.
"We are replacing our current Dura-Bright wheels with ones enhanced with XBR as we speak--and plan to start shipping the new ones Sept. 1," he added, stressing that Dura-Bright XBR wheels are not going to cost any more than their predecessors.
Kramer also said that Alcoa is "aggressively" looking at using its XBR technology to enhance fuel tanks, exhaust stacks, and other exterior truck components that are offered in chrome, but cautioned that it will be some time before the XBR package can be applied to those items. "There are a lot of things on a truck fleets and drivers want to make shiny," he noted. "We'll look at fuel tanks first and move on to other components later."
