Recently, a major technological breakthrough has been made in China’s automotive key components field: the ultra-high-strength steel hot-formed lightweight wheel has successfully achieved localization, breaking the long-term monopoly of foreign technologies and filling the domestic technical gap in this field.
After four years of joint research by Dongying Guangda Jinke Robot Co., Ltd. and Harbin Institute of Technology, the product has realized small-batch production, with its core technologies and production equipment all independently developed in China. The manufacturing process involves heating wheel blanks to nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius for austenitic transformation, followed by rapid transfer to molds for quenching and shaping, ultimately forming lightweight wheels with martensitic microstructure.
Compared with traditional products, this localized wheel achieves a dual breakthrough in strength and lightweight. Its strength is more than twice that of conventional wheels, while its weight is reduced by about 50%, dropping from over 40 kilograms to around 20 kilograms. This weight reduction brings significant chain effects: it increases the effective load capacity of transport vehicles by about one ton, reduces fuel consumption and exhaust emissions by reducing the vehicle’s self-weight, and aligns with the national “dual carbon” strategy and the green transformation trend of the automotive industry.
The R&D team overcame key technical challenges such as uniform heating of unequal-thickness wheels, high-temperature intelligent handling, and rapid cooling quenching through hundreds of parameter adjustments and technological transformations. As a national high-tech enterprise, Guangda Jinke has an 80% share in the domestic hot-forming equipment market, laying a solid foundation for the localization of the product.
This breakthrough marks China’s independent control over key lightweight automotive technologies, injecting strong momentum into the upgrading of the automotive and manufacturing industries. It not only promotes the high-end, intelligent and green development of the industry but also provides important support for China’s automotive industry to enhance core competitiveness in the global market.
Post time: Mar-06-2026
