No 11.75" fronts boooooo.
No 11.75" fronts boooooo.
This is both not true and backwards. The stiffness of metal does not change for billet vs forged they have the same exact Young's modulus. A forging will be stronger than billet for a part of the same weight and size.
A forging is stamped into a near net shape prior to machining and this aligns the grain boundaries in the metal with the shape of the part and improves it's strength. A billet is just a fucking casting done continuously, with grains oriented to the shape of the billet when it was cast without any reference to the part being cut out of it. When you machine parts out of billet the grains are cut through without any orientation to the final shape of the part being produced.
"billet aluminum" sounds sexy but it's describing the most common low cost way to produce metals, not anything special.
The Driver (05-29-2014)
You are correct. I was thinking of a billet part versus a cast part. The other thing to take into consideration would be the grade of aluminum used, but I didn't see anywhere what grade was used. If both were using the same material, the forged would be stronger, followed by billet and then cast.