Difference between Billet/Forged/Cast

billet means that something is machined from a raw piece of something. take a block of 4340 and make a rod or crank from it.

forged is when the metal is shapped by heating.

Cast is molten metal poured into a casting of a praticalar part.

Thier strenght is usually though of in that order as well if the matirials are equal.

they are usually priced in that oder due to te cost of the manufacturing.

think of how much material is wasted when making a billet crankshaft.

true you waste material when doing a billet crank. however you can melt that shaved metal back down and use it to make something else.

MT1083 said:

What makes one process stronger than the other though? Are the molecules lined up different or something?

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sort of. I mean you can be as long winded as you want on these questions. It is all metallurgy.

basically with billet you have a machined matiral. the raw material is just milled into what you want. hence this is as strong as the material you use.

now in a forging you take the material and through heating and working you make thethe part into what you need. the molucules are denser than casting.

Casting is the most effecient and cheapest solution but the whole melting and cooling process does not yeild as strong of a part.

these are short elementary answers as I dont' want to write a whole book nor am I qulified to do so. do some web searching and you can proably find some long winded more techinical info that get into it at the molecular level as to why the processign makes it stronger and weeker.