- The process of metal forging has been around
since as early as 4000 BC.
What started with the heating of precious metals
such as gold and silver which was then shaped
by hitting it with a rock, has become a process
that you still hear plenty about to this day.
Although the process itself has advanced tremendously
since the time of Mesopotamia,
the idea has stayed the same.
We as car enthusiasts are familiar with the forging process
due to things such as forged internals
like connecting rods and pistons
but as well as forged wheels.
With that being said and judging by the name of this video,
in today's episode of the Build Sheet,
we were going to be talking about forged wheels
and before we go ahead and get into it,
don't forget to subscribe.
I'm Gels from Fitment Industries and here we go.
(rock music)
If you've been shopping around for wheels lately
which hopefully would have been done
at Fitmentindustries.com,
you have more than likely seen wheels
with various manufacturing processes.
From your standard low pressure cast
to rotary fores to flow form to rotary flow form forge.
If we go ahead and look into some early forged wheels,
we are going to be looking for the most part at BBS wheels.
The iconic BBS-RS wheels were designed
with a di-forged face and have been produced since 1983.
Back then you could actually have gotten BBS-RS
as an upgrade for your Nissan, Mazda, Chevy
and even VW for the low price of 2,000 dollars.
BBS has also claimed to have developed
the first forged magnesium wheel back in 1992
for a Ferrari F1 car.
After running them in the F1 for a couple years,
BBS decided to bring that technology into the world
of IndyCar racing in 1994.
Ever since then we have seen more
and more companies come around
and start developing forged wheels to introduce
to their own lineup.
The process of creating a forged wheel
is generally pretty straightforward.
Starting off with a raw hunk of T6 6061 aluminum,
it is heated and drawn out
into the general shape of a wheel.
When you hear people talking about forging wheels
and the raw blanks that they start off with,
for a lot of the times, you hear them talking
about them cold working to the metal
or they they cold forge it
and don't let that confuse
that they're just taking cold metal
and stamping the hell out of it.
What they mean is that the metal is heated up
to the point of being workable but not molten.
So they heat up the chunk of aluminum pretty hot
and they draw it in the shape of the wheel.
Now of course this is minus all the cool stuff
like the face or any good design or anything like that
or any distinctive features that would make it a wheel
and this varies from the casting manufacturing process
where the alloy is melted down into a liquid form
and then poured into a mold
to achieve the shape of the wheels.
So after that forged blank is formed into its final shape,
it is sent off to the CNC machines.
So here's the blanks will be machined in the design
of the the actual wheel.
Usually starting off with the back profile of the face
and then switching over to the front profile of the face.
The design of the wheel actually starts to come to life.
During the machining process,
what started off as a forged blank will lose anywhere
from 70 to 80% of its mass.
A very similar process is used for the manufacturing
of forged modular or three-piece wheels as well;
however instead of having the entire wheel to worry about,
only the face of the wheel is going
to be forged and machined.
The blank size is much smaller considering
that only a wheel face will be produced
and after they are machined finished and powder-coated,
they are sent off to be joined by the barrel and the lip
to be assembled into the final product.
Forged wheels are often considered
or compared to performance wheels
due to them being such a lightweight wheel
but a wheel being lightweight is not the only attribute
to making a wheel a performance wheel.
The main contributing factor
to making a performance wheel has to do
with the stiffness to weight ratio.
This is where the forged wheels really stand out
in the world of performance.
When cast wheels
or low pressure cast wheels are manufactured,
the alloy is melted down to a molten metal
and then poured into a mold like we said.
This almost eliminates any uniformity
in the grain structure of the metal.
The metal can also become porous due to gas formations
or solidification shrinkage while the molten metal cools.
In turn this can cause imperfections
that can have effects in the performance of the wheel
and cause micro fractures and a whole bunch of stuff
that you don't necessarily want.
With forged wheels the raw material is heated
and put under immense pressure
to essentially press the metal into its final shape.
This allows the alloy to maintain that grain structure
and excludes the possibility of porosity and shrinkage
and in turn forged wheels can be machined down
to contain the less material than a cast wheel
in turn making it lighter.
Now I'm not saying that you shouldn't go out there
and absolutely avoid cast wheels by any means.
Cast wheel companies have many inspection processes
that check for micro fractures, porosity
and anything that would compromise the integrity
of their wheels.
The benefits of going with a forged wheel
over a cast wheel come in the form of again, performance,
it's usually what it always comes down to.
Because of that difference in the manufacturing process
allowing for the stiffness to weight ratio.
Forged wheels are of course lighter
but they can also handle impact better
and as far as the design goes,
they can offer a pretty unique design as well
due to the benefits of the forging process.
The design of forged wheels can offer thinner spokes
than most cast wheels
for example if you look at the XXR-527
like the regular 527 and compare it to the XXR-527F
which is a fully forged option,
you can see a huge difference in the width of the spokes.
Of course some other benefits would include the amount
of customization you can have with wheels.
Things like diameter and width an offset, PCD and finish
and maybe you want the FI logo engraved in there somewhere,
I don't know, but we see a lot of customization today
specifically with the modular options
because every wheel is made to order
and if you're waiting four to six weeks for your wheels
to show up, you might as well get everything that you want
which brings us the probably the only downside
of getting forged wheels.
If waiting four to six weeks or maybe even more
for your wheels to show up sounds like forever,
trust us it does, you can ask Alex.
They can take a little while to be manufactured.
The second thing that you would probably want to know is
that it would be the price.
Forged wheels of any kind are going to run you a good amount
of money strictly due to the cost
of the manufacturing process.
Generally you're going to be looking at spending
at least 1,800 dollars for a set of forged wheels
and of course, you get what you pay for.
Today we see companies like HRE and BBS and SSR
and Volk and Rays who have become icons
in the wheel industry that offer fully forged wheels.
Along with them we see many somewhat newer companies
joining the ranks.
Companies such as Rotiform will offer
some pretty crazy modular wheel designs
but you also have BC forged, you have Niche,
you have Vorsteiner, you have Klutch,
you have Forgestar, you have Concept One,
you have RSR and the list goes on and on and on
and a majority of those wheels just so happened
to be offered over at Fitmentindustries.com.
There's a second plug
but we do see a lot of companies that are offering
or are starting to offer forged options for their wheels.
ESR would be one of those companies
that if you didn't know has a full lineup
of multi-piece wheels now.
So there you have it.
so let us know your thoughts on forged wheels down
in the comments below.
Do you think they're worth it
and let us know what topics you would like covered
in the future episodes of The Build Sheet.
Don't forget wheels, tires and suspension
over at Fitmentindustries.com and there's the third plug.
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but I'm Gels from Fitment Industries,
don't forget to subscribe, we'll see you later, peace.