There have been some epic discussions about this. I purchased a surplus text from the Library of Congress that contained the original published research from 1930s Germany wherein various crankshaft designs and materials were tested. It is the original work that was translated by the US Government and provided to their researchers (and was cited by C.F. Taylor). That design and others were part of the experiment.
The translated work (in Taylor) and numerous other engineering references were pitched by my university library a number of years ago.
So, yes, some companies use(d) it as lightening/balancing strategy which of course it plainly is. Other companies with well educated employees and retained institutional knowledge will know about the 1930s research. Now this type of analysis is done by computer simulation.
This is the German researcher:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_L%C3%BCrenbaum
Cited in:
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/internal ... d-volume-2
Here is the original work (in German):
Luerenbaum pp 128-129 (1).JPG
Luerenbaum pp 130-131.JPG
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