Ford and EOS add voice to custom made wheel nut

News

Ford and EOS have used 3D printing and the human voice to develop a next-generation wheel nut hoped to foil thieves in their nefarious pursuit of alloy wheels.

Locking wheel nuts can only be loosened with a unique key, but the loss of such keys by car owners has led to the development of widely available removal tools.

Now, engineers at Ford and additive manufacturing specialists EOS have created nuts with contours based on the driver’s voice, which - like a fingerprint or iris scan - is a unique form biometric identification.

Arresting bike theft

According to Ford, engineers record the driver’s voice for a minimum of one second and use software to convert that singular soundwave into a physical, printable pattern. The pattern is then turned into a circle and used as the design for the locking nut’s indentation and key.

Once the geometry is known, the nut and key are designed as one piece and 3D-printed in stainless steel. When finished, the nut and key are separated and ready for use after a small amount of finishing.

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