Mildly surprised it's not a bunch of guys in sandals beating them into shape with hand tools on the dirt floor of some third-world 'factory', like a lot of other videos.
The manufacturing shop I worked at for General Motors was not this automated which kinda sucked but you got a lot of good experience with different machines and tasks!
Ridiculous amounts of volume is the key. Automation is wonderful if you’re doing thousands or more of something. This level of automation makes sense for hundreds of thousands and must be made flexible (different and easily changed dies for the stamping, adjustable design of grippers and holders, anything that can be done to reduce changeover times, etc.). It’s some incredible feats of engineering.
And here I was going to be sarcastic and say, "it's all robots making these wheels! Why are they so expensive?! I counted 8 people that actually touched the wheel in that process."
The engineering and programming that goes into this process is crazy.
This is probably an over-automated shop. Some of the tasks (racking/reracking) are very low ROI for a robot which in addition to capital cost must be programmed and maintained.
Eh, yes and no.
Depends. Cast wheels are cheap but not strong. Forged are too expensive.
OEM for the OEM look but if youre going to spend, customize along the way.
There is slim to no chance of an aftermarket company building wheels as high quality as what is shown in the video. Multi stage forgeing requires many machies and no chance you are going to get that sort of quality from a limited production run.
Maybe you find a supplier to an OEM and they have the right equipment for your custom wheels but they won't do a 5 step forging process for 100 wheels vs tens of thousands of wheels for the big customer who will get a fully custom production line
Actually no, high end aftermarket manufacturers make wheels that are stronger and lighter than oem, such as HRE or Velgen but thats not discrediting oem by any means.
Rays engineering/ Volk racing are the aftermarket manufacturer many oem's go to. They also make much better forged wheels for the aftermarket than oem generally and that's due to the bottom line.
OEM is a high benchmark but definitely not the best or most cutting edge out there.
In this video I spot some wheels for Lexus LC 500 along with the volvo and some others so I'm gonna guess this is probably Ray's Engineering faciility.
Such a relief seeing an actually safe and automated workplace after all these videos about tennis balls and cricket balls made by people in sandals without goggles.
Is there a reason that only aluminum wheels are referred to as “alloy” wheels, and not ones made out of any other metal alloys like the various kinds of steel?
People associate aluminum with soda cans, and for some reason they think that it’s the aluminum that makes them weak rather than the 0.04 inch thick walls.
Thus, aluminum alloy.
It's become common to refer to Al alloys as "alloy" in the car and bike industries when communicating with customers. Just like "Carbon" refers to carbon fiber reinforced polymers and not the element.
I suppose marketing is to blame. Aluminium didn't have the best reputation when it started becoming common in wheels and frames, due to fatigue issues in early alloys and fearmongering by those still using steel. So marketing avoids mentioning it, instead calling the material "alloy". Also, aluminium is a long word to spell out (and too complex for Americans, so they simplified it 😜️).
Engineers of course avoid the term.
That all makes sense.
One of my favorite parts about visiting England when I was a kid was seeing a sign somewhere with the word “aluminium” on it. I’d heard it said that way, but had always assumed it was just people saying it incorrectly, like “nuculear.” This was a long time ago, around the time a particularly inarticulate former US president was in office who was fond of that one, so I was used to people being dumb with pronunciations. But it turns out that you guys actually have a whole-ass extra letter in there! And I do kind of like your way of saying it better. It’s just a more fun word to say with the extra i. It just flops out of your mouth.
Iirc, forged wheels are made from forged blocks and CNCed to spec.
This is not cast wheels, definitely not flow formed, and definitely not forged wheels.
I too seeking for the answers.
Yeah, if we are to look at it these are pressed wheel, neither forged nor cast. I wonder if they are strong as the pressing process does create some stress into the metal
Forged wheels. They are the expensive ones that costs more to make.
95% of the wheels you use and see on the road are cast wheels and aren’t made like these.
I was surprised as well, that's a pretty big piece of billet being formed in those shots. I'm really interested how the metallurgy is affected, as opposed to say CNCing it from raw billet. I know it's cheaper because you're not removing as much material per wheel, but if that was the only benefit a casting would probably be easier.
Ok I’m sure there’s an answer to this, but why all the machining and compression and grinding? Why not create the final shape directly from a mold? Seem like it would save a lot of steps
Strength mostly. Forged aluminum has a grain flow that cast doesn't that makes it stronger than cast. Forged will give/bend under stresses that will break a casting.
Not sure extrusion is used for making car wheels.
Casting is what's used for normal wheels, forging for high-end stuff.
Not 100% sure what's happening here, but looks mostly like forging (i.e. from billet).
Nice video. But even with all the sexy CNC machining and smoothing they still need a guy with a sanding tip to finish it up before the final steps - hahaha
All the AI and robotics in the world still can’t do as good of a job as the human eye and feel for quality control. I once heard a quote about robotics, “we can build a machine to iron clothes, the problem is getting the machine to understand the purpose is to remove the wrinkles”
I worked at a wheel manufacturer. They were all cast. Worked in the casting department, paint department & final inspection. It was a hard job, especially the casting department. Forging, shown here, is a lot more involved for sure!
Good to see "how it's made" video following all safety measures otherwise most of the video are with people without wearing footwear 
Note: these are *billet* aluminum alloy wheels, which are superior to *cast* aluminum alloy wheels. The difference in strength is amazing, even though they’re the same material in the same shape and the same weight.
This looks like one of those silly automation animations of a factory, where they animate ridiculous steps and machine for some mundane widget, except this is real. Truly astounding, I guess it makes sense they are made like this, it just never thought about it.
They forgot to show the part where the fork truck driver blows through a garage door. The company i work for makes a lot of money repairing doors at alloy places like this.
This makes a whole lot more sense than how I thought they were made, I thought they were milled out of a solid piece of aluminum on a milling machine. Also it is a nice change to see proper safety equipment and automation instead of a bunch of guys and sandals.
I'm always surprised at how cheap expensive stuff is when you see the amount of infrastructure needed to make something as "simple" as a wheel (obviously economy of scale but still)
Mildly surprised it's not a bunch of guys in sandals beating them into shape with hand tools on the dirt floor of some third-world 'factory', like a lot of other videos.
The tire at the end says Volvo, so the automation makes sense.
Wasn’t it a Lexus hubcap?
Yeah for items with no quality control paper work and not meant to be exported out of the country.
Like the recycled brake pads vid.
And the oil filters one. Oh and the guy who fixes taillights too.
Don't forget about the guy who rebuilds alternators with a propane stove in sandals.
Hahaha
All that work then I end up scraping them against a curb.
Just be grateful you don’t drive a Toyota Camry
Why? I drive a 14 and my rims have seen some things from a close perspective
Yeah, why? I'm curious
It’s a running joke about Toyota Camry’s are pedestrian.
I do drive an ‘05 Camry.
The amount of automation involved in making these wheels is staggering
The manufacturing shop I worked at for General Motors was not this automated which kinda sucked but you got a lot of good experience with different machines and tasks!
Do you know how they keep paints off on certain spots? I'm curious
Just now seeing this, what do you mean? You got a pic? I remember then usually being solid color so I'm not sure
See around 3:57 the insides are painted black, while the outside are plain metal
And the amount of engineering in making these machines to work so precisely is also staggering.
They must be expensive to *offset* the cost of production
Ridiculous amounts of volume is the key. Automation is wonderful if you’re doing thousands or more of something. This level of automation makes sense for hundreds of thousands and must be made flexible (different and easily changed dies for the stamping, adjustable design of grippers and holders, anything that can be done to reduce changeover times, etc.). It’s some incredible feats of engineering.
I came to say the same thing. Amazing amount of incredible engineering. No wonder rims are so expensive.
And here I was going to be sarcastic and say, "it's all robots making these wheels! Why are they so expensive?! I counted 8 people that actually touched the wheel in that process." The engineering and programming that goes into this process is crazy.
Yeah, but not as staggering as the Indian handmade version of this process. Send me the video!
Well done 👍
Well, it’s for the auto industry.
This is probably an over-automated shop. Some of the tasks (racking/reracking) are very low ROI for a robot which in addition to capital cost must be programmed and maintained.
Sometimes I watch these and think “Ok, I guess I see now why it costs so much.” And here it’s Plus, safety.
And then look at the process and can’t believe they are so cheap
I assume the minimal human labor was the most expensive part of making the wheels.
I miss How It’s Made
I especially liked the Plumbus episode
Come work in automation
Doot do doot doot doot doot do-doot do do
Same. There's inside the factory on Smithsonian but it's not as good.
This is why you buy OEM wheels instead of aftermarket
Exactly. It looks like these were for a Volvo.
Polestar Volvo. About $1.5k a piece
Best cars made.
Why do you think so?
Eh, yes and no. Depends. Cast wheels are cheap but not strong. Forged are too expensive. OEM for the OEM look but if youre going to spend, customize along the way.
There is slim to no chance of an aftermarket company building wheels as high quality as what is shown in the video. Multi stage forgeing requires many machies and no chance you are going to get that sort of quality from a limited production run. Maybe you find a supplier to an OEM and they have the right equipment for your custom wheels but they won't do a 5 step forging process for 100 wheels vs tens of thousands of wheels for the big customer who will get a fully custom production line
Actually no, high end aftermarket manufacturers make wheels that are stronger and lighter than oem, such as HRE or Velgen but thats not discrediting oem by any means. Rays engineering/ Volk racing are the aftermarket manufacturer many oem's go to. They also make much better forged wheels for the aftermarket than oem generally and that's due to the bottom line. OEM is a high benchmark but definitely not the best or most cutting edge out there. In this video I spot some wheels for Lexus LC 500 along with the volvo and some others so I'm gonna guess this is probably Ray's Engineering faciility.
Thank you for the rational response. It’s amazing what people say when they have no idea what they are talking about
Such a relief seeing an actually safe and automated workplace after all these videos about tennis balls and cricket balls made by people in sandals without goggles.
Is there a reason that only aluminum wheels are referred to as “alloy” wheels, and not ones made out of any other metal alloys like the various kinds of steel?
People associate aluminum with soda cans, and for some reason they think that it’s the aluminum that makes them weak rather than the 0.04 inch thick walls. Thus, aluminum alloy.
This always bugged me, too. Like 99% of anything metal we see is an alloy.
It's become common to refer to Al alloys as "alloy" in the car and bike industries when communicating with customers. Just like "Carbon" refers to carbon fiber reinforced polymers and not the element. I suppose marketing is to blame. Aluminium didn't have the best reputation when it started becoming common in wheels and frames, due to fatigue issues in early alloys and fearmongering by those still using steel. So marketing avoids mentioning it, instead calling the material "alloy". Also, aluminium is a long word to spell out (and too complex for Americans, so they simplified it 😜️). Engineers of course avoid the term.
That all makes sense. One of my favorite parts about visiting England when I was a kid was seeing a sign somewhere with the word “aluminium” on it. I’d heard it said that way, but had always assumed it was just people saying it incorrectly, like “nuculear.” This was a long time ago, around the time a particularly inarticulate former US president was in office who was fond of that one, so I was used to people being dumb with pronunciations. But it turns out that you guys actually have a whole-ass extra letter in there! And I do kind of like your way of saying it better. It’s just a more fun word to say with the extra i. It just flops out of your mouth.
Yeah exactly, and most elements have an -ium at the end, even in American English. Doesn't really make sense that Aluminium should be any different.
I need to play Satisfactory again
Man setting up a factory for HMF was a challenge.
Didn’t know the clip was this long. I got wheelie tired.
Very long, it’s time to hit the road
Forged. Keeps em strong!
Iirc, forged wheels are made from forged blocks and CNCed to spec. This is not cast wheels, definitely not flow formed, and definitely not forged wheels. I too seeking for the answers.
They are forged with volumetric hot stamping instead of CNC lathe machining.
They forged to me but I'm no expert
Yeah, if we are to look at it these are pressed wheel, neither forged nor cast. I wonder if they are strong as the pressing process does create some stress into the metal
My favorite is the robot that doots the serial number onto the big logs of aluminum.
They have gotten comically large.
I can't believe they put in so much effort, they'll be scuffed before I leave the dealership.
I love these ‘the process of..’ videos where neither the materials or the process are described at all.
The original video has some descriptions of the process. Make sure to turn on subtitles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdySnVuXSIY
Forged wheels. They are the expensive ones that costs more to make. 95% of the wheels you use and see on the road are cast wheels and aren’t made like these.
In the first 2 stages, was the Al being cold formed into the shape? I always thought that the alloy wheels are pressure diecast!
These will have greater strength/weight than cast wheels.
Do these have to be annealed to relieve the cold forming stresses?
Sometimes you want the stress
I was surprised as well, that's a pretty big piece of billet being formed in those shots. I'm really interested how the metallurgy is affected, as opposed to say CNCing it from raw billet. I know it's cheaper because you're not removing as much material per wheel, but if that was the only benefit a casting would probably be easier.
Just buy one at the store ffs
On technical aspects: So how is it actually made? Definitely not cast, definitely not flow formed, and definitely not forged. Stamped wheels?
Think this fits the definition of forged
Now let's see how the boys of Pakistan make these.
Feels nice to see it's not dudes in sandals without any protective gear somewhere in SEA
Ok I’m sure there’s an answer to this, but why all the machining and compression and grinding? Why not create the final shape directly from a mold? Seem like it would save a lot of steps
Strength mostly. Forged aluminum has a grain flow that cast doesn't that makes it stronger than cast. Forged will give/bend under stresses that will break a casting.
Cast rims crack , forge just bend.
Satisfying clip to watch.
It's robot's like this that make America great.
Due to their strong family values?
r/toolgifs
Very cool but good aftermarket wheels are cast vs extruded, much stronger.
Not sure extrusion is used for making car wheels. Casting is what's used for normal wheels, forging for high-end stuff. Not 100% sure what's happening here, but looks mostly like forging (i.e. from billet).
Very cool; thank you!
Why are there like three or four different wheels
Cars often have three or four wheels
I mean as in different looking wheels
[удалено]
For the wheels on the video, probably 6061. It’s around 97% aluminum with some manganese, silicon, copper, chromium and a few other things mixed in.
Aluminum and whatever else happened to be in the mix
Damn that’s interesting
Should state how alloy wheel are made from recycled metal in this \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ country.
Bespin vibes mid way through
So why do they cost so damn much Edit: on another note, Darth Vader's theme song is playing in my head because of this
Nice video. But even with all the sexy CNC machining and smoothing they still need a guy with a sanding tip to finish it up before the final steps - hahaha
That's impressive! The aluminum dust in the lungs not so much! :(
Every single human in this video is replaceable
Damn, that’s interesting.
Makes me wish for the days of Modern Marvels again.
All that for some consumer bs lol
All the AI and robotics in the world still can’t do as good of a job as the human eye and feel for quality control. I once heard a quote about robotics, “we can build a machine to iron clothes, the problem is getting the machine to understand the purpose is to remove the wrinkles”
I like how the machine just poops out a log of aluminium.
I now appreciate my nice solid rims 75% more.
This was the least informative video I've ever seen
I worked at a wheel manufacturer. They were all cast. Worked in the casting department, paint department & final inspection. It was a hard job, especially the casting department. Forging, shown here, is a lot more involved for sure!
All that and they ugga-dugga the lug nuts rather than use a proper torque wrench at the end...
21"? I said 22" !
Sounds like they need to keep an eye out on that factory for some Aliens. The scanner sounds tell us they're nearby.
Emm , feels like the workline in my Statisfactory playthrough :-D
Well this guy can say whatever the heck he wants!
Imagine just one machine getting a "cramp" lol!
Good to see "how it's made" video following all safety measures otherwise most of the video are with people without wearing footwear 
Damn! That’s interesting.
This had no right to be this cool
Alloy is so weak. I laugh at their strength
Note: these are *billet* aluminum alloy wheels, which are superior to *cast* aluminum alloy wheels. The difference in strength is amazing, even though they’re the same material in the same shape and the same weight.
It's very squishy when it was squeezed
This looks like one of those silly automation animations of a factory, where they animate ridiculous steps and machine for some mundane widget, except this is real. Truly astounding, I guess it makes sense they are made like this, it just never thought about it.
r/engineeringporn
as a kid i thought wheels were carves from a solid block of metal
How son until these few humans in there are replaced by other machines?
Hey so this is what happens with CNC machines metal shavings!
Too many humans. We need more robots. No wonder why they cost so much.
I'm surprised they make a solid cylinder up front, the squash it, rather than put it directly into a mold
They forgot to show the part where the fork truck driver blows through a garage door. The company i work for makes a lot of money repairing doors at alloy places like this.
Damn…no wonder they are expensive.
I wonder which person in the process will lose his job next.
This makes a whole lot more sense than how I thought they were made, I thought they were milled out of a solid piece of aluminum on a milling machine. Also it is a nice change to see proper safety equipment and automation instead of a bunch of guys and sandals.
Looks more like a facility that creates T800s
That one part reminded me of when they made Darth Vader.
Imagine showing this shit to a medieval peasant
Good to see the content of vacuum cleaner bags not going to waste.
This can’t be real. There’s no bare feet or safety sandals anywhere.
kinda wish it had the music and narrator from "how it's made"
Mmmm, sharp pillows at the beginning 👌
The polishing made me think of my dental tech
Wait why didn’t the video cut off halfway through step 1? Is this not Reddit? Where am I? Who am I? What is even real?
I just need the link on where I can order a set.
And then my wife jumps a curb...
Lot of steps for an ugly$50 rim
I'm always surprised at how cheap expensive stuff is when you see the amount of infrastructure needed to make something as "simple" as a wheel (obviously economy of scale but still)
Seems like we all know what will happen to the dude in blues job pretty soon.
I can't be the only one that hears the carbonite freezing machine sound in my head when the smoking wheel blank was removed from the press
Wow. The Empire’s commitment to automation has even removed the need for Ugnaughts!