Quote:
Originally Posted by xfirer1guy
What do you mean "quality of their forgings"? Have you seen metalurgical analysis of samples? What do the shear stresses and ultimate yields look like? HRE's forgings are NOT Chinese like some have suggested. They are US made blanks.
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I said quality of their forging - meaning quality of their forging process. I have not seen the analysis of HRE's samples and honestly don't have the skill-set to properly interpret them if I did. See the links below (and yes I do realize that the facility IND visited in the link below is casting wheels - not forging which is done in BBS's Japanese facility). BBS controls their process from start to finish - including producing the alloy used in their wheels. HRE buys quality US made blanks and mills them to the wheel design. My understanding is that BBS (and Volk) use a different process (and more expensive and superior process) which includes pressing the forged blank into it's rough shape and then only milling out the details.
To be clear - I'm a huge fan of HRE, have been to their facility, think they produce the best custom wheels, and wouldn't choose any other custom wheel over HRE.
http://www.m3post.com/forums/showthr...t=bbs+facility
Link to BBS Japan Forging Process outlined:
http://www.bbs-japan.co.jp/en/tec/factory.html
"The foundation of BBS’ forging technology is a unique processing which the wheel is formed from a basic shape to the design shape in stages of first, second, and subsequent forging processes using the maximum 9,000- ton press and multiple high precision dies. This achieves the elaborate and orderly metal flow lines which spread to every corner of the wheels. These arrays of refined metal grain are the evidence of the overwhelming combination of light weight and toughness."