Cast vs Flow Formed vs Forged Wheels – The Real Difference

Quality. Safety. Performance. When it comes to choosing performance wheels to sell, as a buyer, you want a product to please the end consumer, as well as a product to represent your company in the best light possible. To get more news about Alloy rims, you can visit nnxwheels.com official website.

So what does the consumer want? And what will benefit your company most?Based on our experience from the companies we’ve worked with, they prioritize quality and safety, shorter production lead times, and efficiency in application for the end consumer.

To help bring some clarity as you research which wheels to source, this article will cover the three main wheel options and how they relate to those goals in terms of strength, load bearing, cost, application, and production times.
Let’s start with the cast wheel. Casting alloy wheels is the most common manufacturing method on the market. Casting is a metalworking technique that’s been used in some form or another for thousands of years where hot liquid metal is poured into a mold and allowed to cool.

When it comes to manufacturing wheels, this is important for several reasons as it affects the performance, strength, and cost of the wheel. As the liquid alloy cools in the mold, there is a chance for greater porosity, or inconsistencies in the metal. There are different methods to lessen this, but the end result is a wheel with lower load bearing potential. These inconsistencies can also lead to cracking when under pressure. To counter this, more material needs to be used, which results in a heavier wheel than the other two manufacturing methods.

As cast wheels don’t typically have the strength or the lightness for serious performance, flow formed wheels, or forged wheels might be a better option for those applications.The second manufacturing process creates what is most commonly known as “flow formed” wheels. This is a relatively new method, that’s a sort of hybrid between forged and cast wheels (although it’s not to be confused with forged wheels as the process is entirely different.)

The first main benefit here is a lighter wheel because less material is used. Different flow forming techniques and manufacturing processes result in a wheel that’s anywhere from 15% to 25% lighter than a cast wheel.

The second is increased strength. The flow forming process both compresses and stretches the metal, changing its composition and increasing its tensile strength. This leads to increased shock resistance and a higher load capacity.Flow formed wheels are a great option for those who want something lighter and more durable than a cast wheel. On the track, for example, less weight leads to less rotating mass, a benefit for both greater acceleration and breaking efficiency.

For quality assurance and safety on the road, it’s important to research carefully before choosing a well-respected manufacturer, as the source and composition of their alloy, along with the unique techniques they use for flow forming all make a difference in the final product. Five well respected flow forming manufacturing companies to start with include:

Konig – One of the most recognizable aftermarket wheel brands around, Konig has been making quality and trust wheels for almost 40 years. Car enthusiasts and global OEM brands alike know them for their high standards in wheel manufacturing.

Enkei – A Japanese Corporation established in 1950, they are known for developing some of the lightest performance wheels on the market. They all the largest Japanese car manufacturers and General Motors in the OEM market, they also supply the consumer automotive aftermarket, as well as the Formula 1 McLaren Honda team since 1995.

FORGED WHEELS VS CAST ALLOY WHEELS

LIGHTER
Forged wheels are approximately 20 percent lighter than cast alloys, and twice as light as steel wheels. Forged magnesium wheels provide a further 25 percent reduction in weight, along with incomparably higher vibration absorption characteristics.To get more news about Alloy rims, you can visit nnxwheels.com official website.

Ultra-light forged magnesium wheels stand out as a separate category representing best-in-class automotive products. These are predominantly used by professionals in high-end racing/ motor sports competition series. These are also selected by car enthusiasts worldwide thanks to their significant weight reductions and other important benefits.

STRONGER
Wheels produced by real net-shape forging technology are extremely strong, durable and, therefore, safe because of the high degree of metal deformation (compaction) and non-existence of typical casting defects, such as cavities and cracks. This is achieved with a properly aligned fiber structure of the aerospace grade alloy via a three-dimensional closed-die hot forging process in a hydraulic press of 10,000-15,000 tons of force and in conjunction with a special heat treatment. If subjected to sudden impact, a forged wheel does not crack and can be repaired if necessary.

LONGEVITY
Aside from being a third lighter than aluminium, magnesium has high specific heat values; 100 times higher than aluminium and 23 times higher than steel. Thus, intrinsic material characteristics ensure faster heat dissipation from the wheels and brake system, thereby prolonging the lifetime of brakes and brake pads. In addition, they represent an important safety factor.

Magnesium wheels also possess an exponentially higher damping factor providing for efficient absorption of vibrations, shocks, impacts and noise thus resulting in a significantly more comfortable ride for the driver and passengers and preserving the suspension system for longer service.

COMPARED TO CAST MAGNESIUM, FORGED MAGNESIUM WHEELS ARE STRONGER
Forged magnesium wheels are in an entirely different category; they have a higher specific strength value and toughness (ability to absorb energy) compared to a cast magnesium wheel. It is hardly surprising that forged magnesium wheels are selected by car and motorcycle enthusiasts worldwide given that they are 15 – 20 percent lighter than vintage magnesium wheels and even stronger than cast motor sport wheels.

IMPROVE BRAKING PERFORMANCE
As competition wheels are subjected to speeds of over 300 km/hour, safety is a top priority. Magnesium wheels provide faster heat dissipation from both the wheel and brake system – an important factor for motor sports professionals. Excessive heat is detrimental to tire life cycle, braking performance and brake pad life. Magnesium alloys enjoy a higher specific heat value.

PROLONG THE SERVICE LIFE OF THE SUSPENSION SYSTEM
Magnesium wheels also possess a higher damping factor, allowing for a number of improvements, such as better absorption of vibrations, shocks, impacts and noise thereby prolonging the service life of the suspension system. These features are important not only for race wheel applications, but also for mainstream driving comfort and improved fuel economy.

What Are the Pros and Cons of Magnesium Wheels?

You might have heard your father say he ran a sweet set of mags back in the day, and you probably wondered what the heck he was talking about. Well, magnesium was once king of the hill when it came to lightweight materials for wheels.To get more news about Alloy Forged Wheels, you can visit nnxwheels.com official website.

If you're like me, however, the Le Mans disaster of 1955 is the first thing to come to mind when you think about magnesium and automobiles. There are some inherent dangers of making wheels out of this flammable material. They have even been banned for use in some motorsports due to their history.
However, magnesium wheels still exist to this day because there are ways to reduce the risks. For one, the wheels are magnesium alloy, meaning they aren't completely made from one material. Calcium is often added to the alloy, which counteracts the magnesium's flammable nature.

Even if it's not quite as common as it once was, you can still obtain magnesium alloy wheels. Its primary benefits include its lightweight and superior dampening properties, making for a smoother ride. However, it is something of an exotic wheel material, and you can expect to pay a premium because of it.
Magnesium also has a shelf life, so you don't want to use them after so many years of age. Magnesium corrodes fairly rapidly, and the structure of the wheel is compromised because of it. So, if you can score a set of mags from the glory days, it's better to repurpose them as wall-hangers than to put them anywhere near your car.

Carbon fiber is one of the best options for performance wheels. Most of today's high-performance vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Z06 Corvette, Ford Shelby Mustang GT350 and GT500, Ferarri 488 GTO, Koenigseggs, and Porsche 911 Turbo S either come standard with carbon-fiber wheels or offer them as an option.

There's no question that carbon fiber stands out for a performance build because it's stronger than steel and lighter than aluminum. You’ll have wheels that help the vehicle in all areas of performance without having to worry about their resilience to adverse conditions on the track.
That isn't to say carbon-fiber wheels are ideal for day-to-day use. They are generally intended for track use. The owner of a Shelby GT500 equipped with carbon-fiber wheels learned that when he hit something hard on a typical roadway.

As great as carbon fiber is, it's brittle. It doesn't flex like steel or aluminum and will shatter under excessive forces. We can't say what the driver of that Shelby ran into, so there's no way to know if other materials would've survived, but we do know that the brittleness is an issue.
The owner of that Shelby had to shell out an excess of $7,000 for one wheel. That reminds us of the other drawback to carbon fiber wheels: the expense. Carbon fiber is neither cheap nor common for use in wheels. That means setting up your car with a set is going to demand a fortune. That paired with the structural concerns makes for a wheel that's not worth it for the average street-driven vehicle.

forged alloy wheels rims inch size car alloy wheel

The mechanical and physical strength characteristics of a forged wheel are equally distributed throughout the wheel on a molecular level. The result is far greater strength and resistance than an equivalent cast wheel, vastly improving the performance of the wheel when faced with impacts and high levels of load stress.To get more news about Alloy Forged Wheels, you can visit nnxwheels.com official website.

A forged wheel is far lighter than an equivalent cast wheel. The weight reduction benefit of forged wheels serve to improve the overall performance of a vehicle by reducing the vehicle unstrung mass and improving the performance characteristics of the suspension, improving both road holding ability and dynamic cornering.

The lightweight characteristics of the forged wheel mean that it will demonstrate a lower angular momentum. In practical terms this lends an improved driving dynamic through lower power consumption during acceleration and better braking power.

Improve driving comfort. Due to the characteristics of the forged wheels, the driving direction is lighter after installation, and the high-speed driving is particularly stable, thereby improving the driving pleasure.

Good safety. For high-speed cars, it is not uncommon for tires to puncture at high temperatures and reduce braking efficiency due to tire friction and braking. The thermal conductivity of aluminum alloy is three times that of steel, iron, etc. In addition, due to the structural characteristics of aluminum alloy wheels, it is easy to dissipate the heat generated by tires and vehicle chassis into the air. Even in the case of long-distance high-speed driving or continuous braking on downhill roads, the car can maintain a proper temperature. Not only can the tires and brake drums be less prone to aging due to frequent high temperatures, but also can reduce the rate of puncture.