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| The Enkei PF01 is both strong and light. The open spoke design is good for brake cooling. |
After die casting the wheel blank is MAT processed. In a typical cast wheel the cast blank wheel has the rim section machined to final dimensions. This is fine but the entire wheel has the same metallurgical structure throughout as a casting.
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| The curving spokes allow clearance for big brakes like our four piston Fastbrakes that we will be installing. |
In a MAT wheel, the cast blank’s rim section is roll formed, where the rim section is cold formed by spinning the wheel blank through rollers which squish the rim section into shape under tremendous pressure. The cold working refines the grain, adds compressive stress and establishes grain flow in the proper orientation for the stress the rim might see in use. The MAT process also increases the aluminum's tensile strength.
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| The wheel backside and barrel section is where the MAT forming technique is most apparent. The rim section is much thinner than a cast wheel but it is also stronger, much like a forged wheel. |
The strength imparted to the wheel by the MAT process allows for the rim section to be thinner and lighter. It is more important for the rim to be lighter than the center due to the inertial effect when the wheel is spinning. Since the rim section is the part of the wheel that is most often stressed by impacts, it makes sense to take advantage of the localized strengthening of the MAT process there.
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| Our wheels have a 4×100 bolt circle and a 75mm hub bore meaning they will fit many FF Sport Compacts. The backside of the hub section is machined out and pocketed for lighter weight although we didn't get a good picture of that. |
The MAT process uses much less expensive tooling than the multistage dies and multi ton presses used to produce forged wheels so a MAT wheel can be priced somewhere in between a cast and a fully forged wheel. No, a MAT wheel is not as good as a fully forged wheel but it is superior to a plain old casting and much cheaper.
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| Light and strong at a good price make the Enkei PF01 a good value wheel. |
The PF01 in our size is a respectable 12 lbs, not as light as a typical fully forged wheel but as light as a typical lightweight cast wheel while being much stronger. The PF01 is very strong and can take the heat of competition as we know of many pro teams using it in a variety of tough motorsports ranging from Formula Drift to Rallycross.
