Why are forged wheels so expensive? Commonly, thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars a piece

Generally speaking, there are two types of wheels: forged and cast.

Forged wheel manufacturers Brother 158 number, 158 in the front, 2855 in the middle, and 1361 in the back four positions. Wheel Deng Deng.

To put it simply, casting refers to the process of smelting metal into a liquid that meets certain requirements and pouring it into a casting mold, and obtaining a casting (part or blank) with a predetermined shape, size and performance after cooling and solidification and cleaning treatment.

Forging is a processing method that uses forging machinery to exert pressure on metal blanks to produce plastic deformation to obtain forgings with certain mechanical properties and certain shapes and sizes. Through forging, the metal can be eliminated from the loose casting state, welding holes, etc., so that the density of aluminum is higher, and the comparison between forging and casting will find that the finished product of casting will have a feeling of osteoporosis. Forged parts usually have better mechanical properties than cast parts, so forged hubs are costly.

Forged wheels are formed by continuous stamping during the production process, and the molecular structure will become very tight, so they can withstand high pressure, so under the same size and same strength, forged wheels are lighter than cast wheels.

The production process is complex.

Feeding & Cutting: The aluminum rod used for forging the wheel is made of 6061, which is a military-grade aluminum material that cuts the aluminum rod to the size required to make the wheel.

Aluminum rod preheating: Put the cut aluminum rod into the heating furnace for heating, heat to the set temperature, so that the material reaches a balanced temperature, and then take it out for forging operation.

Forging into embryos: With a forging press of more than 8,000 tons, the preheated aluminum is forged into blanks by straight forging.

Powerful spinning forming: The blank is spun into shape with 3 rotors up to 25 tons per rotor using an upright spinning machine.

Heat treatment: After the aluminum wheel is spinning and forming, it needs to be strengthened by heat treatment, and the heat treatment process includes AHigh temperature solution treatment, bQuenching treatment, and cLow temperature aging treatment.

Lathe processing.

Center hole and drilling.

Wheel surface treatment.

Advantages of forged wheels.

Hello, forging is a matter of quality, and general performance cars will choose.

Casting involves heating the aluminum ingot into a liquid state, which is cooled and formed after being injected into the mold; Forging is to be placed on a flat mold after being softened at room temperature or heated (without morphological change), and then extruded by an 8,000-10,000-ton press to form a wheel rim.

Due to the change in the form of aluminum in the casting method, and it needs to enter the closed mold, it is inevitable that impurities and air will seep in, and if the factory process is not up to standard, there may be shrinkage porosity and hollow quality problems. In the forging process, the aluminum material avoids the penetration of air and impurities because there is no change in form, and at the same time, due to the high pressure of the forging press, the forged hub has a higher molecular density and a tighter structure, and the quality of the cast wheel is lighter and stronger than that of the same specification, which means that it is also more fuel-efficient.

At the same time, the price of a gravity casting machine on the market is about 2 to 30,000 RMB, and the price of a low-pressure casting machine is about 10 to 200,000 RMB. Compared with the same period last year, the Nissan forging machine is about 20 million RMB, and the German forging machine is about 50 million RMB.

The above costs determine the huge difference between forged and cast wheels.

Imported forged wheels are expensive, a set down tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, but there are also some less famous but as good but cheap forged wheels, such as the United States APS wheels, etc., for car owners with a relatively small budget, it is a wise choice.

Casting: It is the process of smelting metal into a liquid that meets certain requirements and pouring it into the casting mold, and obtaining a casting (part or blank) with a predetermined shape, size and performance after cooling and solidification and cleaning. The basic process of modern machine building industry.

Forging: It is a processing method that uses forging machinery to exert pressure on metal blanks to produce plastic deformation to obtain forgings with certain mechanical properties and a certain shape and size.

Forged wheels. The casting process is relatively simple and crude and easy to produce on a large scale, so the cost is relatively low, while the forging process is more complex, so the production cost is relatively high. In addition, the forged wheel is made by continuous tempering, so its molecules are very compact and arranged very neatly, which also causes its strength and toughness to be better than casting, that is, the forged wheel is stronger.

Advantages of forged wheels.

The advantages of forged wheels are high strength, higher safety, strong plasticity, light weight, good heat dissipation capacity, fuel saving, etc. At the same time, forged wheels are also the most advanced wheel manufacturing method at present, and the strength of this kind of hub is about 1 to 2 times greater than that of cast wheels, and 4 to 5 times that of general iron wheels.

Therefore, it is stronger and more impact-resistant, and the toughness and fatigue resistance are also significantly stronger than those of cast wheels, and they are not easy to crush and break. The only drawback is that it is expensive and has a long production cycle.

The strength of the forged aluminum ring is 1-2 times greater than that of the cast aluminum ring, and 4-5 times that of the general iron ring, so it is more solid and collision-resistant, and the toughness and fatigue resistance are also significantly better than the cast wheel, which is not easy to crush and break, and has stronger safety.

Forged wheels are better than casting in terms of performance and quality, and the improvement in vehicle performance is significant, but it is also a visible improvement compared to casting, so it is still necessary to make corresponding choices according to personal needs.

It should be noted that when choosing forged wheels, you must pay attention to the wheel brand, otherwise buying some niche brands of "forged" wheels is likely to cause "broken manufacturing"**, and safety issues cannot be taken lightly.

Forged wheels advantages

1. Lightweight and more fuel-efficient.

Forged wheels of the same size can be about 20% lighter than casting, and 1kg lighter on wheels can increase horsepower by 10 hp. In addition, the lightweight also makes the response speed of the suspension have been significantly improved, and the response speed of the suspension system is faster, and the potholes on the road are naturally more comfortable.

2. Fuel-saving and good heat dissipation performance.

According to Japanese experiments, for every 1kg reduction in the weight of a 5-seater car, about 20L of gasoline can be saved a year, and a research report published by the Society of Automotive Engineers of the United States pointed out that although forged wheels are more expensive than ordinary cast wheels, in the long run, the car can recover the cost of 1-30,000 kilometers.

In addition, the forged wheel has a better heat dissipation effect, which can make the brake drum and tires not easy to age when driving at high speed for long distances, increase the life and reduce the risk of puncture.

3. Better handling performance.

If the width of the wheel hub is increased, the vehicle's acceleration, braking and sensitivity on the curve will be significantly improved, whether it is from stationary to starting, or accelerating while driving, it will be more brisk, and the vehicle will be comfortable in the corner, whether it is in or out of the corner.

1. The weight of the hub is different.

Forged wheels are forged with high strength, and the weight of forged wheels is lighter under the same size and style. Some cast wheels have the appearance of mimicking the characteristics of forging.

In this way, it is difficult for ordinary consumers to distinguish, but the two are quite different in metal characteristics, and the fatigue resistance, impact resistance and strength of forged wheels are higher than those of cast wheels.

There is not much difference between the two in terms of heat dissipation function. However, cast wheels with qualified quality are generally about 20 heavier than forged wheels.

2. Different styles and types.

Forging wheels two-piece type, three-piece type will generally be combined with rivets or welding (argon welding), generally the rim and spokes have obvious color differences, it can be easily seen that the cast hub is formed at one time and there is no color difference. (This method may not be applicable in all cases, as forged wheels are also available in a one-piece type).

3. The percussion echo is different.

That is, the percussion method, using a small metal rod to hit the hub, the echo of the forged hub is crisp and pleasant, and the echo of the casting hub is dull and low.

1. Fuel saving 2. Increase engine life 3. Good heat dissipation 4. Good roundness 5. Strong and durable 6. Beautiful appearance.

1. Fuel saving 2. Increase engine life 3. Good heat dissipation 4. Good roundness 5. Strong and durable 6. Beautiful appearance.

Forged wheels must be good, in fact, forged wheels are aluminum alloy wheels, and their advantages are as follows:

1. Fuel saving, on average, each aluminum alloy wheel is 2 kg lighter than steel wheels of the same size, and a car can save 10 kg of weight;

2. Improve the engine life according to the engine load and power diagram, when the load increases to a certain extent, its power decreases, and this margin will mean that every 1 unit load at this time, the engine will be more laborious (special fuel consumption), the engine load will be reduced, and the failure will be naturally reduced and the life will be extended;

3. Good heat dissipation, aluminum alloy thermal conductivity is 3 times that of steel. The cooling effect is good, and the long-distance high-speed driving can also keep the tires at the appropriate temperature, so that the brake drum and tires are not easy to age, increase the life, and reduce the chance of tire punctures.

Generally around 200-300.

The modification of automobile wheels should pay attention to the following regulations:

1. Brand. It is not required to improve the mouth, but it is also necessary to choose a better domestic one, or a Taiwanese imitation, there are some domestic wheels that are too poor in quality and too poor in safety, and I use Chuangming's wheels, which are cost-effective;

2. Style. Pay attention to the style of the problem, there are many spokes, although the car washing will be more troublesome, but the force may be more even;

3. Hub parameters.

If you want to change the brakes in the future, then it is best to choose the hub with a relatively large ET value, so that there will be enough space to change the brakes in the future, if you are sure that you don't want to change the brakes in the future, you don't need to pay too much attention to this;

4. Under normal circumstances, the wheel hub modification can be raised 2 levels in the original foundation, that is, the original 16-inch wheels are recommended to be changed to a maximum of 18.

5. When changing the wheel, it is also necessary to choose good tires, it is best to not be much different from the original car, calculated with a tire calculator, the difference is less than 3%, and try not to choose too thin tires, on the one hand, thin tires are easy to break, in addition, thin tires are not easy to find.

Do you still believe in what domestic forging, domestic casting is not at ease, domestic 1 ton forging? Or the 1,000-ton fan-shaped forging used by BBS decades ago? Japan's BBS 9000 tons of forging machine in China is not one, no money on BBS don't take your life to play domestic forging, a few hundred wheels don't buy, my mountain bike wheels are thousands, conscience persuasion, when the time comes, it's too late to regret if something happens.

Forging a single is thousands, and a few hundred will definitely tell you that it is not forging! Forging to choose a large factory, too low to consider whether it is forging, forging is made of T6061 aluminum 10,000 tons of forging, and then through CNC and other processes, you also need to do a good job of dynamic balance, roundness and so on. The forged wheels manufactured by Dachang are designed and drawn, and the load analysis of each hub is done, so there is no need to worry about the uneven force of the thin and thick spokes!

The wheel hub is upgraded according to the original car data, and there is no need to add things such as the center ring. Chirui forged wheels are only forged wheels.

The reason why forged wheels are light:

Because the process method of forging the wheel is to use high pressure (most of which is thousands of tons of pressure) to press a piece of alloy that has been heated into the rough embryo (prototype) of the hub, and then use CNC detail engraving for secondary processing, due to the impact of high pressure, the molecules between the alloys will be smaller, the gap will be finer, the density will be higher, and the interaction force between the material molecules will be stronger, so the wheel hub only needs less raw materials to achieve enough rigidity and make the overall weight lighter.

A brief introduction to the wheel:

The wheel hub, also known as the rim, wheel and tire bell, is a barrel-shaped metal part with the inner circumference of the tire supporting the tire and the center mounted on the shaft. There are many types of hubs according to diameter, width, molding method, and material.

Because forged wheels can obtain better mechanical properties than other casting methods, the wall thickness of the rims and spokes of the wheels can be greatly reduced, and all the weights will be lighter.

The process of forging the wheel is very different from that of the casting wheel, the cut aluminum rod is heated, heated to the set temperature, and then taken out for forging operation, and then the preheated aluminum is forged into a blank by straight forging with a forging press of more than 8,000 tons, and then the blank is spun into shape with 3 rotors of up to 25 tons per rotor with an upright spinning machine, and finally the forging hub is formed. After high pressure and other processes, the molecular structure of the forged wheel hub is tighter, so its rigidity is stronger than that of the cast wheel. As can be seen from the profile of the forged wheel, its thickness is thinner than that of the cast wheel, so the forged wheel of the same size will be lighter than the cast wheel.

Our common aluminum alloy wheels are usually produced by casting, which is prone to porosity and microcracks inside the casting method, and is easy to crack in high-speed and extreme environments. Extreme road conditions like the WRC are all about forged wheels.

As the name suggests, the forged wheel hub is forged out, which can remove the internal pores and cracks to the greatest extent, and the forging is often more than once, and the use of multiple forging can ensure the removal of all aspects of material defects, increase the internal stress of the material, better toughness, impact resistance and tear resistance at high speeds are greatly improved. From the forging process, it can be divided into cold pressing and hot pressing, cold pressing is to extrude the metal through the press at room temperature, and hot pressing is to heat the material to a certain extent and then forge. On the one hand, the forging pressure can be reduced, and the ductility of the second metal will become stronger, which is easier to forge and form, and reduces the cracks and crumbling of cold pressing.