How it's made - Omega forged pistons - Part 1

We visit Omega pistons to see the fascinating process of forging a 73.5mm A-Series racing piston.
Part 2 - • How it's made - Omega ...
Part 3 - • How it's made - Omega ...

[@nickbadi3599]

I installed some heating at Omega 30years ago when they had not long installed the forge. I was chatting to the old chap who ran the business and he was telling me about how when they first started forging pistons they were nearly all scrap due to die lubrication problems. They had had various specialist companies in with sprays lubes etc but no joy. he had nearly given up and he was chatting to a guyin the pub who had worked on a forge all his life. He told him the trick of offering the pot of lube up to the die (1.22 ) they went from nearly 100 percent scrap to have a reasonable sucess rate overnight. Not long after a team from Honda came for a look around and picked up a forged piston and asked how they had made it as they didnt believe it could be forged in that shape . As luck would have it a billet was just up to forging temperature he dipped the die and forged the billet . Luckily it came out perfect the Honda team were very impressed.

[@abim2599]

Hgccx

[@benburnett8109]

BS. It was a bar not a pub. And you left the part out where the guy paid for his chicken fingers and potatoe sticks.

[@nickbadi3599]

The only bars around then we're the alloy ones used for forging the pistons .

[@silverxiree]

@@nickbadi3599 ahahhaha nice one.

[@Omega-Phil]

That's funny, the old bloke at that time was my dad, Fred, he's still there now operating machines at 85 ;)

[@GWAYGWAY1]

When it came out of the press, it looked like one of my racing two stroke pistons after a meltdown sieze up.

[@danhillman4523]

Right? I have melted a few in my sled motors.

[@travissmith2211]

Nothing like a bot of controlled chaos.

[@bnghjtyu767]

Looks like a good job to have in the cold winter.

[@markdavies9765]

have used many sets of omega pistons over the years, all have done there job faultlessly ,a quality product. Nice to see where and how there made

[@villagetube1581]

Excellent work 👍👍👍

[@sixtyfiveford]

That's neat.

[@djquick]

Very cool! Thx for posting!

[@Limeayy]

I love this channel!

[@victoryfirst2878]

What is the lubricant you use on the dies and on the aluminum also ?? Thanks

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

It's a special graphite-based solution, to withstand the high temperatures and lubricate both steel and aluminium. Understandably Omega keep the exact mix a secret.

[@victoryfirst2878]

@@MEDEngineeringTechVideos Thanks.

[@onkelt2624]

This Pistons are well done. 👍😊 Like auf Steak.

[@arthurmchugh5184]

He has done it for HOW LONG?? couldn't stand to work in the same spot day after day

[@ZHGAmingAllTheWay]

24 years is defenantly a long time but some people do much longer. Had a friend who's mom worked at publix for 40 years

[@cristianpopescu78]

Very interesting! Great video!👍from me

[@SubieRow]

I need skirts that long. Might help my ej25 stop slapping... ha ha ha

[@lianeko9093]

Can you make piston from damascus steel.?

[@martinkamberov4957]

Hi ! How long does it take to produce a piston - from raw material to completely finished product ready for shipment ? Thanks

[@paradiselost9946]

i would say theres about 1.5 to two hours work, all up. they could probably check time sheets and get a pretty good idea "per unit", but remember its all done as batch work... 100, 1000 at a time sort of thing. set that die up, and just punch out blanks for putting on a shelf, then run through on another size... finally a batch gets pulled down, jigs set up for specific runs, lathes tooled, boring machines clocked in... and yeah... hard to really say? only have to set the jig up once for each run... some may stay set and be universal... as a hobby machinist i never saw the sense in one-offs. i always try to make five, ten of something... depends what it is of course!

[@beachboardfan9544]

Why 2618 instead of 2024 or 7075?

[@piotrlenarczyk5803]

These could be even lighter with some perforation. I guess: consider magnesium surface layer for aluminium foam. Thank you for sharing knowledge.

[@markhall912]

Yeah

[@TheAnonymous1one]

Awesome vid

[@gautamsinghal7397]

What temperature we heat the die??

[@davidalejandro244]

como se llama el horno donde estan los 500 pistones?

[@hantimau]

2:33 we have same boot

[@deaniversen351]

polish the fugg out of em, then coat, then balance match, oh boy, knife edged crank all polished up and balanced to the nuts.. fugg it, polish and balance the cams too, everything, weightmatch rods, rings, anything that moves

[@NhatCoKim]

Chế tạo quá đẳng cấp bạn ơi.

[@saeedqab]

if you permission me i want to dubb your video in urdu launch your video in pakistan

[@florin3161]

To be very good forged is need that the clamping has no escapes on sides....if has escapes...os only presed aluminium not forged...

[@Limeayy]

I didn't think they'd use billet stuff to make forged, i thought more of cast aluminum. Wonder how much strength, compressive strength, tensile strength going to billet to forged makes any difference or some difference vs. cast to forged.

[@Limeayy]

@steve gale I understood the top portion but not the 50x stronger. i really have hard time believing its 50x stronger though... Anyways, thank you for information. :D

[@jimthomas777]

Lime , you could make a cast piston yourself , just heat aluminum until it melts and pour into a mold , a forged piston is already forged aluminum then heated up and pressed with 400 tons of pressure forging it again , any of this and what Steve Gale said sinking or being forged into your brain yet ?

[@Limeayy]

@@jimthomas777 ooh ok. Thanks lol i was just curious :D

[@Bricksandmortars]

@steve gale wont the heat treatment cause recrystalisation undoing all the strain hardening of the forging process?

[@leneanderthalien]

@steve gale no microfractures: cast aluminium =cristalisation, forged aluminium stretch the cristals to fibers: this made it much more flexible and streong...

[@MrFuguDataScience]

I would have to do blood work and chest x-ray for long term workers.

[@hamstrtj]

You what?

[@MrFuguDataScience]

@@hamstrtj , doing that kind of work over years I would suggests looking into health effects.

[@hamstrtj]

@@MrFuguDataScience you should focus on your English before complaining about others profession. You can clearly see they suck off the air from the forge. The rest is just dry and not toxic work.

[@shadetreeforge]

@@hamstrtj Even with good ventilation, there is still the physical wear n tear on the human body! Working at Wiseco piston, (a larger manufacturer) I forged hundreds of thousands of pistons by hand no robotics every year for 16+ years! had to give it up because of health concerns!

[@Omega-Phil]

Maybe he didn't wear his apparatus so that he could do a live commentary.

[@akshayV701]

what does 2618 stand for ??

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

It's a grade of alloy.

[@andesandess115]

Mantap mister

[@fredlee9054]

Okay...i need to say it....the middle finger bothering me a lot...sorry

[@elcb87]

why is so hard to understand uk slang rather than us?

[@goldgitter3548]

They bend their/ words.

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

We speak English in England you know...

[@elcb87]

MED Race Technologies so wich is the pure english actualy?

[@shadetreeforge]

@@elcb87 what the British speak, in the states our English is Americanized! been that way since the Revolutionary war!

[@elcb87]

guys calm down... im just want improve my proper english only... :D

[@edmondcasenas2565]

I realized it's waste of time making your own piston just to recycle the loosen old piston spare parts... Waste of money... Much better to purchase in shop than make your own cuz you need pressing machine kind of stuff.

[@marklowe7431]

Totally different to what I expected. Great video.

[@Zak6959]

Mechanic porn, Old-school.

[@chrispilling8633]

Ace, great videos!!! Really appreciate being able to get this sort of insight!! 👍👍

[@scottydntno]

Wish they would of shown the complete process including the machining.

[@Mekanikpanggilanmanado]

mantap

[@kevbarry6457]

Techo porn....Give me more!!! Loved this Jason. What beads do you use? Show us your blasting cabinet.

[@nyirgu]

Great video. Thank you for taking the time and putting this together Steven. Very informative. Big Thank you!!

[@geek9642]

Loving these videos, really informative.

[@pec1739]

some factory honda B series type-R pistons are made by them

[@larryhooverpedofilekillerc4177]

hello good afternoon thank you for being beautiful thank you for being wonderful I hope you have a great day. Goodnight greatness in you is beautiful

[@teukudjw7737]

Great video guys, thank you. Make sure to put back that suace pan to the kitchen. :)

[@gumerranggg4633]

.....Wowwww!!.Thank​ you​ very​ much.​ I'm from Thai​ land.🎃🚬

[@kevintucker3354]

Who doesn’t love to see that hot aluminum squeeze out of the forge press! Sorry, aluminium.... Why is aluminum underlined in red?

[@daniel_6741]

It is called Aluminium, youre missing an i ;)

[@camgnilpe9300]

@@daniel_6741 not in american english!

[@stokkelandsmia1631]

As a blacksmith i do like this , heat treating aluminium has me intrigued thou but i bet that a trade secret .. right ?

[@shadetreeforge]

Not really, Alcoa aluminum has specs for this and gladly supplies it to the customer, Every alloy is different, If I remember right 4032 = 950deg @ 1hr and quench in 150deg water.

[@stokkelandsmia1631]

Thanks for the answer 👍

[@КонстантинПанов-б2и]

Hello , please tell me what press pressure is necessary for forming this piston, it is very important to me . The video is cool 🤘 🤘 🏿 💪

[@ethanmurphy2006]

using your manufacturing process for an engineering project in my undergraduate! what is the size of the initial aluminum bars?

[@isaacsaenz8935]

162 estúpidos dont like 👏👏😄😄

[@slybunda]

ask for genuine not forgery

[@jiffypangestu1688]

My bike using 150 cc diasyl cylinder and forged piston.. ans liquid coollant too 😂👌🏻

[@louisvanrijn3964]

After looking to all that piston-casting video's on slippers using mainly undefined alloys, this is deafening step towards quality.

[@AmrinderSingh-zx9hr]

I am running a garrage with the name of PUNJAB RACING STORE Kharar-140307 in INDIA 🇮🇳. Where I modify and tune bikes for RACING. I usually use Wesico,woosner,Pro-X etc. Please tell me, How you can send me Pistons in INDIA as per my requirement.

[@AngelaWest-if5ko]

The guide has been there nearly 30 years. Must be a decent place to work. I’m sure they ask each other “hot enough for ya” every day lol

[@paradiselost9946]

heh heh heh. i do this at home ;) well, not quite. i dont have billet (surprisingly hard to get!) so i melt down pistons scored from the racetracks... pour in the mold, let it set... then slam it with the fly press whilst its still pliable. casting... then forged. a piston is amazingly simple to make. yet its amazingly complex! most of its in the accuracy... dead square pin with dead on tolerance bore and the ovality...

[@AngelaWest-if5ko]

I was expecting the forging process to be a machine that slams down on the billet, not something slow like a hydraulic press.

[@SevenDeMagnus]

Cool word 'forged' like Thor's hammer, or Excalibur: "forged by the gods..." God bless the ancient engineer who inventing the first forged tool, I wonder who it was?

[@craigywaigy4703]

Oh come on, we don't need subtitles, just because his accent isn't mid-atlantic and is Northern!!!! Great vid otherwise.

[@arefa2350]

Yea but its actually to compensate viewer loss of hearing due to machining noise.

[@regimen9786]

Can anyone tell whether zinc aluminum alloy is good for making pistons of bitzer semi hermetic?

[@doanprasmana1444]

we aply lubrican.... the lubrican gone to vapor wgeb touch the hot iron... then he swap the iron with towel...

[@dieselscience]

Blits of Al Millennium?

[@redpillsbluepills]

Its not so labour intensive and fairly a simple process, so why are they so expensive???

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

Material cost and an enormous energy bill. Forging the piston is only the first process. There are many hours of machining once forged.

[@chipper442]

How many forgings can you do with that tool, before it has to be reworked or replaced?

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

Omega still has some early forging tools from the '70s. So quite a long time if used properly!

[@dadybig6522]

This fire is on more than 8 hours I amagin the bill

[@WPXTacoMan477]

dady big probably not that much to be honest, industrial grade fuels can come pretty cheap

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

Pretty high yes!

[@BigRW]

I was expecting the billets to be hotter, as in glowing red.

[@nova01huawei98]

BTW he's from England

[@beedalbahgraham2981]

Noice

[@yavuz7248]

Where is the part 2:)

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

On the way :)

[@bigbothoee8617]

How Much pressure is required to do that to billet

[@rosewhite---]

what's difference between a billet and a black? I think billets are long pieces and small pieces like these piston pieces are blanks.

[@framegrace1]

Wow, when I thought about forged aluminium pistons, never really thought it would be like this, just in one step. This is almost "extruded" pistons...

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

This is just the internal shape - there's a lot more to go yet!

[@leneanderthalien]

this process is called "matrixing"...

[@framegrace1]

@@MEDEngineeringTechVideos I meant, forging in one step. Used to work on an iron forging company, and is done in multiple steps

[@shadetreeforge]

Aluminum forging in this case is a reverse extrusion and formed in 1 shot, and must be formed slowly to prevent tearing!

[@bestamerica]

' what kind of vehicle use this piston

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

These are for BMC A-Series engines, so Minis, Metros, Sprites etc

[@Steve211Ucdhihifvshi]

ahhhh by mini piston you mean those shitty pommy cars not small

[@edmondcasenas2565]

Now I understand why pistons cannot casting... Much better to pressed to compressed the aluminum material for greater strength, I saw some video on KZbin attempting to copy the piston rod just to recycle the spare parts of a car made of aluminum cans. It works actually but didn't last long cuz it's casted...

[@asicsair1023]

هل تستطيع صناعة سلندر ؟

[@olivderpo]

What is the press effort?

[@lhawoekcreator]

Amazing

[@frankgonzalez2165]

That's not the full process it's not even finished it half way thumbs down from me sorry

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

You're right. That's part 1

[@karanmalhotramalhotra1873]

Sar Fiat petra kar ka piston ring piston

[@maksud9279]

hello. I live on the other side of the earth. is it possible to specify the weight of the production process? or to produce jointly in our country ?

[@guyconnell2250]

How do you spell Aluminum in Australia? Is it spelled "A-L-U-M-I-N-I-U-M"?

[@afsarauto5539]

Forging per hour a capacity

[@davidvang3310]

Takes 2 minutes to make why the fuck are they so god damn expensive

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

It takes a lot longer than two minutes!

[@oilylampman7252]

Just got my lotus esprit pistons from Omega! they do look very very nice!

[@MyCatInABox]

Damn...that hydraulic machine squeezes the shit outta them pistons, huh?

[@stevelee5724]

Why the DUMB music ? Ruined the video.

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

Very loud and unpleasant background noise - there was no usable audio track. Thanks for the comment!

[@tonyroma9046]

Do they spell aluminum differently too?

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

Do you mean aluminium? :p

[@tonyroma9046]

@@MEDEngineeringTechVideos Really... You spell it that way? That just doesn't seem like a word we'd have different.

[@jameswilson8820]

The English spelling is correct😎

[@leneanderthalien]

@@tonyroma9046 the only country in the world who say "aluminum" is the USA, in all other countries in the world it's aluminium...

[@tonyroma9046]

@@leneanderthalien Apparently Canada is same as USA www.thoughtco.com/aluminum-or-aluminium-3980635

[@gaildimick1831]

Need a 8-3/4” aluminum piston. 5 ring groves

[@subramaniamchandrasekar1397]

Never heard extrusion can also be called forging.

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

This is not extrusion.

[@subramaniamchandrasekar1397]

Thanks. You are the expert. No arguments. Regards.

[@leneanderthalien]

@@subramaniamchandrasekar1397 yes this is not extrusion: this process is in reality called "matrixing"...but the pistons from the common cars (inlusive GTI's) are mold , not forged/matrixed...

[@siggyincr7447]

Extrusion is when it is pressed through a shaped die and comes out the other end with the same profile as the die. Kind of like how some pasta is made. Forging is when a chunk of metal is heated till malleable and then formed between and upper and lower die.

[@bearfacts7944]

Specific!

[@konstantin11]

What temperature do you hear up the billet before forging?

[@bigred8438]

So, after what I have seen in another video in which the piston manufacturing process includes them being cast and machined in many different procedures which is extraordinarily time consuming, I would think that forged pistons are cheaper to make.....but somehow they aren't.

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

If you check out parts two and three, you'll see the machining involved in making a forged piston is identical to that of a cast piston.

[@paulerickson3089]

Always wondered how they go about forging those. Very interesting.

[@Dagowly83]

MED - What options have you guys got for turbo charged applications on a +40 application without going down the 18cc dish route (as that would give my a CR of 7.8:1)?

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

We keep a 10cc +40 in the diecast Omega range if that may work for you?

[@Dagowly83]

@@MEDEngineeringTechVideos might be of interest! What piston deck height are they on a standard crank?

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

@@Dagowly83 They're standard 1.498" crown height.

[@SarmatKa777]

That press can punch a hole through across the globe :-)

[@ralphcruz8484]

Can you make a piston out of titanium material

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

It's not viable, no.

[@johnvillagomez637]

Just curious, what liquid do you guys use to quench the piston after heat treating? I understand medal can be quench in oil or water after heating to certain degree.

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

It's a closely guarded secret that one, sorry.

[@haseebqureshir9324]

Very nice work

[@6ixss]

imagine workers car pistons :D

[@DumbCarGuy]

Love the video but can anyone answer why you can get 8 forged pistons for a common Chevrolet 350 engine for $300 but it will cost you $1200 to get 4 pistons for a fiat, or lotus or escort

[@MEDEngineeringTechVideos]

Not sure. We sell the forged Mini pistons for £540 Inc vat

[@alreed2434]

Quantity as production numbers go down price ea goes up. How many people order lotus pistons probably not millions. So the same people probably make multiple types therefore tooling changes e.t.c.

[@Zohar-Modifier]

I want Excalibur be made !