Harden were making one piece large flange hubs (which were forgings) from 1945 in Britain.
Hilary Stone, Bristol, England
Mark Bulgier wrote:>
> This is mostly guesswork, but I think in the 50s they didn't have the
> technology to make all-aluminum large flange hubs. Large flange hubs were
> most commonly steel hub barrels with aluminum flanges pressed on (Airlite,
> Gnutti, FB etc).
>
> It seems to me that the all-aluminum body was MaxiCar's and Prior's claim to
> fame, but they couldn't make a near-net forging with large flanges, due to
> the limitations of their aluminum forging technology. (Near-net means close
> to the final shape, little machining needed) Of course a modern-style
> one-piece large flange hub could be machined from a solid billet, but that
> would be inefficient and wasteful. I'm assuming that near-net casting was
> possible but not considered for a high quality part - probably the aluminum
> casting technology of the time would have resulted in a weak part or one
> with thick, ugly sections.
>
> So to keep the one-piece AL body and accommodate the fashion of the day for
> large flanges, Prior and MaxiCar made these riveted-together oddballs.