Mach V Dan visits TWS in Japan
 

About a year ago I took a little (okay, not so little) trip to Japan, where I visited the wheel forging foundry of Tan-Ei-Sya Wheel Supply, otherwise known as TWS. Tan-Ei-Sya is Japanese for (roughly) "Excellent Forging," and that is indeed what they do.

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TWS Headquarters

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I saw these clever trucks all over Japan. The whole side comes off for easy access to the cargo.

The wheel foundry is a complete soup-to-nuts manufacturing facility, starting with logs of raw aluminum, and ending up as finished forged wheels in boxes, ready to ship out for distribution. Along the way, they wheels undergo more than 35 individual processes, only a few of which I can even describe, much less have photos of. But after my tour I have a new-found understanding of why true forged wheels cost so much.

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Future wheel stock.

When I say "true forged," I mean wheels forged the old fashioned way, which is using a very powerful press to shape the wheels over a die. TWS has two forging presses. The more powerful of the two exerts 8,000 TONS of pressure on the wheel. Yes, that's 16,000,000 pounds of force. By way of comparison, the Eiffel Tower weighs about 10,000 tons.

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The big forging press.

The resulting wheels are extremely strong and extremely light. Forging aligns the metal grains along the direction in which the wheel is formed, so the strength of the aluminum is very high relative to traditional cast, or even "flow-formed" or "semi-forged" wheels.

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Once the forging press is withdrawn, the heated wheel bursts into flames! There's as lot of fire and smoke and steam. It's dramatic and exciting to watch.

After the actual forging, there are a bunch more shaping processes to do things like make the drop center (so you can get the tire on the wheel), forming the lip, and stuff like that.

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Further CNC machining gets something that's more recognizable as as wheel, or in this case, a wheel center. Many TWS designs are two-piece wheels, with forged centers attached to a forged aluminum rim.

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The fit between the center and the barrel is so tight, the barrels have to be heated for the center to drop in. Here are a couple of wheels sitting on inductive heaters for that purpose.

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TWS makes a lot of racing wheels. These centerlock wheels are for Japan's Super Formula series, I think.

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Here are some more centers and barrels waiting for assembly:

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Quality control is a huge thing for these people. The wheels have to pass Japan's JWL and VIA standard. I bet you don't know the difference is between those two! JWL certification is a system where the manufacturer sets up specific tests and performs them in-house. VIA is an outside laboratory where the wheels are shipped off and tested by a third party. Both are quite rigorous, and to pass them both requires extremely strong product.

Here's a wheel that has been sawed up to examine and quality-check the wheel after the forging process:

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Here are some more cut up for testing:

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The finish quality is amazing. Even before painting, the wheels gleam.

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Quality checking:

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Some finished product:

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17" T66-F wheels. One the lightest wheels you can buy. The name comes from a special alloy TWS developed just for this wheel. Some of these wheels may be in the Mach V showroom today! Note you can see the special knurled strip around the barrel where the tire bead will sit. It's intended to provide a higher friction surface to keep the tire from rotating against the wheel.

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The showroom has an amazing display of wheels of all different styles and colors.

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Paint samples:

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This is the newest style, the T66-GT. The deep blue paint finish is also new:

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Out in the parking lot were some cars sporting the company product, including...

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Toyota 86 racer on 16" T66-F. TWS' parent company is Osaka Toyopet Group, and they sponsor a whole racing program.

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Toyota Sera. Rare!

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R-32 Nissan GT-R. So nice!

Now that I'm back in the U.S., we have a few of the T66-F wheels on hand. We've got 17x9" 5x100. 15.75 pounds each.

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Also 18x9.5" 5x114. 16.85 pounds each.

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So that's my TWS wheels story. These are pretty expensive wheels -- up there with the Japanese names you know like Volk Racing. But I can now say from witnessing with my own eyes that they are definitely made using a tremendous amount of care and know-how, and they deliver in terms of strength and weight.

Thanks for reading this.

--Dan
Mach V
FastWRX.com

Thanks for the NSFW tag!

lol jk. Thanks for sharing. Looks like it was an awesome trip.

It's always interesting to see/read "how x is built" plus cool cars.

Oh how I wish, I can afford those sweet wheels.

Wow, cool and tks for sharing. No free samples with the tour? 😜


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Holy crap those are super light. Thanks for sharing!

Ahhhhh beautiful! thanks for sharing your experience over there. just awesome.

Thank you for sharing! The wheel quality and design appear to be top notch! Oh, to have that kind of wheel budget now - need more seat time first.