New and improved AL alloy for high pressure die casting of structural automotive components - characterization, heat treatment and mechanical

最近，从AA7xxx(Al-锌-铜-镁)合金家族开发出一种新的铝合金，使结构汽车铸件有可能取代几种高密度铁基部件，实现显著的汽车自重减轻，同时通过提高燃油效率和减少温室气体(GHG)实现经济和环境效益。新合金的大规模工业测试已经确立了概念验证，并产生了数据，表明与当前最先进的合金相比，强度和延展性提高了200%，提高了模具寿命，降低了高压压铸(HPDC)工艺的操作和维护成本，并改善了轻型汽车结构合金的可回收性。已经提交了临时专利申请，以保护与这一新合金发明有关的知识产权。通过在商业实践中成功实施这项技术，将对全球汽车制造业和整个汽车产生重大的积极经济和环境影响。本项目提案旨在通过研究和实施进行关键技术评估，以确定这种新合金在HPDC工艺中的操作边界：铸造部件的几何设计约束、热撕裂敏感性和热处理优化。该项目的交付将为新合金建立某些可行的操作窗口，指导选择可能在商业化开始时实施的汽车产品，并将失败风险降至最低。该项目的战略将是在初始阶段进行密集的实验室规模研究和开发，以表征和评估合金的最佳操作边界，确定满足实验室规模研发获得的标准的现有商用汽车产品，并进行工业规模试验，以验证在商业汽车铸造实践中实施该合金的可行性。

Recently, a new Al alloy was developed from the family of the AA7xxx (Al-Zn-Cu-Mg) alloy to enable structural automotive cast components that would potentially replace several high density iron based components and realize significant weight reduction of the an automobile curb weight along with the economical and environmental benefits through improved fuel efficiency and reduced Green House Gases (GHG) when implemented. Large scale industrial testing of the new alloy had firmly established the proof-of-concept and yielded data to demonstrate a 200% improvement in strength and ductility when compared to the current state-of-the-art alloy, improved die tool life, reduce operating and maintenance cost of the high pressure die casting (HPDC) process and improved recyclability of a light weight automotive structural alloy. A provisional patent application has been filed to protect the intellectual property pertaining to this new alloy invention. There would be a significant positive economic and environmental impact in the automotive manufacturing sector and automobiles at large globally through the successful implementation of this technology in commercial practice. This project proposal aims to carry out critical technological assessment through research and implementation in order to establish the operating boundaries of this new alloy in the HPDC process: geometric design constraints of the casting component, hot tearing susceptibility and heat treatment optimization. The deliverable of this project would establish certain viable operating windows for the new alloy that would guide the choice of automotive products that could possibly be implemented at the onset of commercialization with minimum risk of failure. The strategy of the project would be to carry out intense laboratory scale research and development at the initial stage to characterize and evaluate the optimum operation boundaries of the alloy, identify an existing commercial automotive product that would satisfy the criteria obtained from the laboratory scale R&D and carry out industrial scale trial to validate the feasibility of implementing the alloy in commercial automotive casting practice.