quote:
Originally posted by A Hudson:
Does she work for Fikse, or whom? Any 'retail' wheel supplier we'd know of, or entirely 'one off'?
The mono-block rotary forged wheels on that Ferrari are indeed one-offs designed specifically for Level 5 Motorsports.
Manufacturers like Coddington, HRE, Fiske ... you name them ... don't manufacture every type of wheel from scratch in-house. They all have CNC machines, and can CNC a wheel from a billet of aluminum, but other types of wheels require equipment that is proprietary and/or too expensive. One piece (mono-block) rotary forgings are such wheels. One piece rotary forgings are purchased from a supplier and then the wheel manufacturer adds their unique and specific art work to the center of the wheel via a milling machine.
My daughter works for the company that supplies one piece rotary forgings ...
Advanced Structural Alloys She can't take credit for the "art work" of the Level 5 Motorsports wheels, that was done by the customer. She designed the "finished lathe blank" which is the wheel without the final CNC work performed by the customer. Advanced Structural Alloys is the only company in the world capable of producing one piece, mono-block, rotary forged racing wheels for any and all forms of auto racing. ASA is capable of manufacturing other types of wheels besides one piece rotary forgings, they can supply the parts for 2 piece and 3 piece wheels, spin formed wheels, flow formed wheels. They can also design the "art work" for the center, they just don't mill them in-house, they leave that to the customer.
Some of their customers are Ferrari, Mercedes, Ford Truck Division, 2 Elle, Forged Alloy Wheels (i.e. Forgeline), Performance Machine/Mickey Thompson, Wheel Pros, Forgiato, Lexani, Asanti, Foose and Work.
April not only designs the wheels, but the tooling for the wheels too. Automotive wheels aren't their only product either. The company's specialty is manufacturing round parts that are strong, stiff and light weight. One day she works on an automotive project, the next day a military project, the next day something for the aerospace industry. She's one of 3 engineers designing this stuff for customers around the world. Sounds like a fun job doesn't it?
... Congrats !...