Development of Sinter-Forge materials and processing technologies for the industrial manufacture of automotive components

烧结锻造(SF)是一种近净成形制造技术，具有材料利用率高、尺寸公差小、产品几何形状复杂、能耗最小、机械性能最高等特点。由于这些特点提供了有利的技术经济，近50年来，这种复杂的方法已被广泛用于高性能汽车零部件的成本效益制造。虽然非常成功，但所有商业化的SF技术目前仅限于加工重铁粉。考虑到最近对车辆轻量化的推动，这一限制在许多汽车场景中都提出了挑战。从这个意义上说，全球显然倾向于使用轻金属合金，因为这些合金是减轻车辆重量从而提高燃油经济性和减少温室气体排放的重要手段。为了解决这一技术差距，达尔豪西大学和马尼托巴大学的学者将与GKN SinterMetals和联邦研究机构CanmetMaterials的工程师合作，开发专门为铝基粉末设计的工业SF技术。在这样做的过程中，团队在以前的倡议中开发的自主进步现在将被统一，以便委托专门为SF技术设计的全新的铝基材料家族。研究的重点领域将包括合金化学的优化、陶瓷颗粒的加入、热机械加工、材料表征和工业规模的SF操作。最终的结果将是一种全新的轻质SF材料和工艺，旨在立即进行工业部署。这将使GKN能够在加拿大将汽车零部件的新前沿商业化，通过实施成果(提高性能、改善盈利、减少排放)的原始设备制造商的收益，以及向GKN供应适应相关产能增加所需的原材料和加工设备的一系列加拿大公司，对整个加拿大汽车业产生连锁影响。

Sinter-forging (SF) is a near-net-shape manufacturing technology that affords high material utilization rates, tight dimensional tolerances, complex product geometries, minimal energy consumption, and maximized mechanical properties. As these traits present favourable techno-economics, this sophisticated approach has been utilized extensively in the cost-effective fabrication of high performance automotive components for nearly five decades. While highly successful, all commercialized SF technologies are presently restricted to the processing of heavy ferrous powders alone. This limitation presents challenges in many automotive scenarios given the recent push towards vehicle light weighting. In this sense, there is a clear global preference for the utilization of light metal alloys as these represent an important means to reduce vehicular weight thereby improving fuel economy and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. To address this technological gap, academics from Dalhousie University and the University of Manitoba will collaborate with engineers at GKN Sinter Metals and the federal research facility CanmetMaterials to develop industrial SF technologies specifically designed for aluminum-based powders. In doing so, autonomous advances developed by the team in prior initiatives will now be unified so as to commission an entirely new family of novel aluminum-based materials specifically designed for SF technology. Focal areas of research will include the optimization of alloy chemistry, the incorporation of ceramic particulates, thermo-mechanical working, material characterization, and industrial-scale SF operations. The net result will be a completely new paradigm of light weight SF materials and processes designed for immediate industrial deployment. This will enable GKN to commercialize a new frontier of automotive components in Canada with a cascading impact on the Canadian automotive sector at large via gains at OEMs that implement the outcomes (enhanced performance, improved profitability, reduced emissions) and the array of Canadian companies that supply GKN with the raw materials and processing equipment that will be needed to accommodate the associated increase in production capacity.