Filament wound wheel and a method for manufacturing the same

For rotation about an axis, a sprocket wheel comprising a wheel structure formed by winding a continuous resin-impregnated filament about a generally spheroidal split mandrel to provide a generally spheroidal filament wound preform, severing the spheroidal preform to provide two generally hemispheroidal preforms each having a hub portion, a rim portion, and a connecting portion joining the hub and rim portions, pressing two toroidally shaped inserts of resin-impregnated filaments into position respectively from opposite ends of the split mandrel to reorient the rim portions generally into parallelism with the hub portions and to reinforce the reoriented rim portions, transposing the hemispheroidal preforms to position the hub portions adjacent each other and space the rim portions apart, and joining the two hub portions under heat and pressure to provide a wheel structure with a single hub portion, a plurality of bushing means passing through each of said rim portions and its respective toroidally shaped insert, and a pair of sprockets mounted respectively on said rim portions by a a plurality of fastening means extending respectively through said bushing means.