Hexcel customer Corima S.A. has won a JEC innovation award for a new concept all-carbon fibre bike wheel.  The AERO+ MCC is a 100% carbon fibre wheel for road bikes produced using a complete composite process. 
The Wheel rim is made of HexPly® and Primetex™ products:
- Uni-directional prepreg
- taffeta weave carbon fibre prepreg wrapped around a PU foam core.
- The hub and spokes are also made from carbon fibre prepreg.
- Some parts are over-moulded and others are adhesively bonded using structural epoxy adhesive. 
The result is a very high performance wheel that weighs in at only 1,000 grams for a pair.

The low density of carbon fibre in the prepreg is a significant advantage, ensuring a very accurate weight distribution and a very light rim with good rotation inertia.  Very high levels of stiffness are achieved, enhancing performance and the mechanical properties of the UD carbon prepreg make it possible to use only 12 spokes for both the front and rear wheels, making this a unique aerodynamic design. 
The Aero+ MCC took two and a half years to develop and will be launched onto the market in May 2010 after the manufacturing processes were finalized at the beginning of December 2009.  The project began with a market survey. Customer expectations and a brainstorming by the sales and research staff then served as a basis to establish the project goals and schedule.  CAD software was used and more than 60 prototypes were built for in-house tests and road trials with "test" riders to fine- tune the wheel performance.
Hexcel and Corima have worked in partnership for over 20 years and Corima has benefited from Hexcel’s experience in carbon fibre, weaving technologies and prepregs to develop groundbreaking solutions in composites for high performance bikes.