Patent ID: 8661678

Claim:
A method of making a combination roller coaster wheel including: selecting a one piece aluminum alloy wheel body; machining the outside of the wheel body to, at atmospheric temperatures, provide predetermined major and minor diameters forming a support disk of the predetermined major diameter and forming along one axial edge of the support disk an annular stop notch of the predetermined minor diameter and further forming a single stop shoulder facing in one axial direction; selecting a carbon steel tread ring; machining the inside surface of the tread ring to provide, at atmospheric temperatures, an annular rim having an inside major diameter sufficiently smaller than the predetermined major diameter and a reduced-in-diameter stop flange of a minor inside diameter sufficiently smaller than the predetermined minor diameter to, at atmospheric temperatures, lock the ring to the wheel body and to further form an annular axially facing surface; applying heat to the ring to expand the ring sufficiently to render the inside major and inside minor diameters of the ring larger than the major and minor outside diameters of the wheel to establish an annular clearance between the wheel body and ring; and while maintaining the clearance, fitting the tread ring axially onto the wheel body to abut the axially facing surface against the stop shoulder; returning the wheel body and ring to atmospheric temperature to shrink fit the tread ring onto the wheel body to mechanically lock the ring to the wheel body.