Development of innovative aluminum P/M materials and processing technologies

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The demand for vehicles with improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions has risen sharply in recent years.  In an effort to meet this goal, the expanded use of light metal alloys to reduce overall vehicle weight is an area of great automotive interest.  Aluminum alloys have been particularly successful in this regard yet conventionally processed (cast, wrought) forms have not attained an appreciable presence in one particularly lucrative market - that of structural engine components. Penetration into this sector is a foreboding task given that tight dimensional control and excellent mechanical properties are staples while cost effective production is mandatory.  With regards to the former, the required tolerances can not be attained through traditional metal forming operations alone. This ensures the need for expensive machining operations that increase costs to a point where aluminum fails to become a viable option. However, the precision forming capabilities inherent in aluminum powder metallurgy (P/M) can be leveraged to avoid this problem and yield a high performance yet cost-effective, product.  The merit of this approach has become obvious to engineers in the U.S.A., Japan and Europe as many large research and development initiatives are now active.  Unfortunately, the occurrence of similar programs in Canada is disproportionately low.  Technological advancement has lagged and as a result, so too has Canadian exploitation.  The applicant proposes to conduct research in a number of key areas that are pivotal to the enhanced usage of aluminum P/M.  One will pertain to the development of new alloy systems specifically centered on P/M equivalents to high performance wrought alloys such as AA2618.  In another branch the development of aluminum-based materials with exceptional wear resistance and high temperature stability will be pursued.  Here, composite materials of sorts reinforced with in-situ formed nitrides will be synthesized.  Finally, the development of sinter-brazing technology for aluminum P/M alloys will be studied.  In this technique green compacts of aluminum-based powders are sintered and brazed simultaneously yielding cost-effective automotive components of exceptional geometric complexity.