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Seems like near-net-shape forging would cost less that milling entirely from billet?
Depends how many you're making. Upfront tooling cost is much higher for forging, but flyaway cost is much lower. Milling starts expensive and unit cost barely comes down however many you make, forging starts ludicrously expensive but the unit cost falls off a cliff once you ramp up the volume.
L H Thomson are an aerospace subcontractor specialising in milled components, they basically had to invest very little to use spare spindle time to launch a bicycle stem, and could do it in an arbitrarily large range of lengths, angles and clamp diameters without adding to the tooling cost.
gbj_tester
TotalShanner
lazysuperhero
I googled after I asked you and found quite a few instances of the faceplate failure. Hadn’t heard about this until now.
Interesting about the manufacturing process. I wonder what their reasoning behind it is. Seems like near-net-shape forging would cost less that milling entirely from billet?