The crankshaft development for the Ford flathead V8 was pioneering. The engine's production development program began with a forged steel crank, per conventional practice, but Ford then developed the improved foundry practice, heat-treating, and materials handling logistics to make the cranks from cast steel instead, yielding in the end a crank just as strong, but less expensive to produce. These new methods were patented. The simple three-main-bearing crankshaft attached two connecting rods to a single crankpin, one rod from each cylinder bank. As with other crankshafts, static and dynamic balancing was performed (as this video on the Ford flathead V8 shows).