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

最近，从AA 7 xxx（Al-Zn-Cu-Mg）合金族开发了一种新的Al合金，以使结构性汽车铸造部件能够潜在地替代几种高密度铁基部件，并实现汽车整备质量的显著减轻，同时沿着经济和环境效益，这是通过在实施时提高燃料效率和减少绿色家用气体（GHG）实现的。新合金的大规模工业测试已经牢固地建立了概念验证，并产生了数据，证明与当前最先进的合金相比，强度和延展性提高了200%，提高了模具工具寿命，降低了高压压铸（HPDC）工艺的操作和维护成本，并提高了轻质汽车结构合金的可回收性。已提交临时专利申请，以保护与这种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，将对汽车制造业和全球汽车产生重大的积极经济和环境影响。该项目提案旨在通过研究和实施进行关键技术评估，以建立这种新合金在HPDC工艺中的操作边界：铸造部件的几何设计约束，热裂敏感性和热处理优化。该项目的交付成果将为新合金建立某些可行的操作窗口，以指导在商业化初期可能实施的汽车产品的选择，并将失败风险降至最低。该项目的战略是在初始阶段进行密集的实验室规模的研究和开发，以表征和评估合金的最佳操作边界，确定现有的商业汽车产品，以满足从实验室规模的研发中获得的标准，并进行工业规模的试验，以验证在商业汽车铸造实践中实施合金的可行性。

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.****