Advanced semisolid forming of complex structural somponents

Project Information

Grant agreement ID: BRPR960220

Project closed

Start date 1 January 1997

End date 31 March 2000

Funded under

• Specific research and technological development programme in the field of industrial and materials technologies, 1994-1998

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

No data

Coordinated by

CENTRO RICERCHE FIAT S.C.P.A
Italy

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Deliverables

Advanced semisolid forming of complex structural components; ADFORM

Initially it was necessary to design and then manufacture a tool for die moulding suitable for thin and thick walls, sharp radii, holes, small draft angles, etc for representative thixo-forming experimentation and to investigate the difficulties of real industrial components and the process capabilities as a function of geometry. A series of representative parts were injected and the resulting microstructural and mechanical characterisations, permitted optimising the process’ parameters in order to improve the filling of materials. On the basis of the experiment, a formulated DOE plan permitted the collection of a series of general items and guidelines (methodology) that served to reduce the industrialisation time in particular to: -Die temperature. -Billet temperature. -Final pressure. -Minimum wall thickness, radii, draft angle, tolerances. -Heat treatment. A numerical code simulation was developed and the experimental activity on the representative part was useful to verify the software developed. At last four components were redesigned and manufactured taking into consideration the component’s functional requirements and the process capabilities of the defined methodology. All the components were checked, tested and an economical evaluation was done. Numerical simulations were also performed and the results were found to be in agreement with the pre-performed experimentation results. The general objectives (to produce complex structural weighting more than 1kg and to produce numerical simulations of thixoforming) were reached. The 30% reduction on development times was more difficult to asses due to unexpected delays caused by technical difficulties in the numerical simulation of thixoforming. Consequently the thixoforming methodology was not as detailed as it was intended to be. In any case the ADFORM project was useful because it helped acquire more confidence in thixoforming technology and it allowed reaching the following conclusions: -General rules about component geometry that allowed for optimising the component from the point of view of weight reduction. -Optimisation of mechanical properties depends initially on the tuning of the process parameters. -The realization that combining thixoforming methodology and the software developed for numerical simulation it will be possible to save a lot of time for component/die design and process parameters optimisation. The potential project benefits can be so summarised as: -Energy saving of about 15-20% (due to eliminating some machining operations). -Reduction of wasted material for each component. -Reduction of machining lubricant employed for each component (less environmental pollution due to the waste liquid). -Process energy saving of 35% in comparison to the casting process (the material being shaped in the semisolid state means a lower process temperature - a reduction of 100 degrees Celsius).