Wheel and Tire Guide - Get a Grip, Wheel Ya?

Wheel Manufacturing: An Inside Look

During our research for this story, we were lucky to get an inside tour of the manufacturing facilities that make Motegi Racing and RO_JA wheels. While the processes are pretty complex (and some of them are so proprietary that we weren't allowed to photograph them), here are a few images that'll give you an idea of how one- and two-piece wheels are made.

A. These huge Borli machines cast aluminum wheels. Molten aluminum is siphoned up from tanks at ground level and fed into molds above, where it then cools to form a wheel. The large gray tank that the hard-hatted worker is standing next to is feeding aluminum into one of the molding station's tanks. In its liquid state, the aluminum's temperature is about 1,300 degrees F; when a wheel comes out of the mold it has dropped to 900 degrees. It takes about seven minutes for a large (20- to 22-inch) wheel to form in the mold, about four minutes for a smaller (15-inch) wheel.

B. Here's a rack of Motegi MRM wheels as they've come out of the mold. Note that there's extra aluminum-called casting flash-in the spokes and on the rim, and the center has yet to be machined.

C. Compare this finished Motegi MRM wheel with the raw casting. The MRM is distinctive for its center finish, which is both machined and painted for a nice 3-D effect.

D. Making a two-piece wheel actually starts with the spinning of these hoops, but that is done elsewhere, so we had to begin here. These will become RO_JA Furious 5 wheels.

E. The hoops are put in this machine, where they're spun and shaped to the spec.

F. Once the hoops are shaped, they're matched with the forged centers and await mating. How romantic!

G. The hoops are heated (so they'll expand a bit) and then the centers are put in place. When the hoops cool they'll hold the centers as they're welded in place. In between all these steps the wheels are checked for proper runout to make sure they're true both laterally and radially.

H. Here's a welding station shown just before the curtain closes and the wire feed begins. The solid plate on the inside of the wheel is a spatter shield, to keep the welding spatter from marring the wheel center. After welding, the wheel goes off to be machined and finished, just as the cast wheels do.

I. And here's what the finished Furious 5 rim looks like after final machining and finishing.

By Drew Hardin

Enjoyed this Post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed, or use your favorite social media to recommend us to friends and colleagues!