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TECHNOLOGY
US Government funds projects to develop
higher performance materials for road vehicles
The US Government’s Department of
Energy (DOE) has selected a range of
new projects for funding with the aim of
boosting the development and deployment
of stronger and lighter materials
for the next generation of road vehicles.
These projects include research into
new lightweight, high-strength alloys for
energy-efficient car and truck engines,
as well as the development and validation
of modelling tools to deliver higher
performing carbon fibre composites and
advanced steels.
The Energy Department has already provided
some USD8 million through 2012 for these
awards, and has requested an additional
USD13.75 million for this year, to support
the completion of these projects over the next
two to four years. DOE’s investments are also
leveraging an additional USD11 million from
the private sector.
These projects support the previously posted
Materials Genome Initiative, announced
by US president Obama to double the speed
and cut the cost of discovering, developing
and deploying new high-tech materials in
the United States. Furthermore, this is with a
background of a stated US federal government
proposal that fuel standard requirements
should reach 54.5 mpg (US) (23.17 km/litre)
for cars and light-duty trucks by 2025. The
DOE recognises that advanced, improved performance
materials are essential for boosting
the fuel economy of road vehicles, while also
maintaining and improving safety and performance.
Replacing cast iron and traditional
steel components with lightweight materials –
including advanced aluminium and magnesium
alloys, high-strength steels, and carbon
fibre composites – allows vehicle manufacturers
to include additional safety devices, integrated
electronic systems and emissions control
equipment on vehicles without increasing
their weight, DOE noted. Using lighter materials
also reduces a vehicle’s fuel consumption:
Cutting a vehicle’s weight by 10%, for example,
can improve its fuel economy by 6-8%.
Another benefit of such competitive programmes
is that advances can be spurred in particular
materials sector technologies through
consideration of parallel developments with
General Motors 1.4 litre Ecotec car engine: GM’s
Flint Engine Operations, Michigan – current project
funding coupled with company investment will
support engine production for current and future
fuel-efficient small cars
competing materials. Also, for example, manufacturing
and processing technologies can be
transferred between
materials sectors
and, in some cases,
optimised materials
in individual sectors
can be used in combination
to realise the
best application solutions.
In this context,
the new investments
announced support
materials innovation
in various critical
areas, including:
Improving Carbon
Fibre Composites
and Advanced Steels
© General Motors
Through Computational Design; and, notably,
Advanced Alloy Development for Automotive
and Heavy-Duty Engines. In this latter
category, several projects will investigate and
develop lightweight, high-strength alloys for
specific auto applications such as heavy-duty
engine blocks and cylinder heads.
One project, led by Ford Motor Company,
will be supported with USD3.3 million funding
to progress ICME Guided Development of
Advanced Lightweight Cast Aluminium Alloys
for Automotive Engine Applications. The aim
is to develop a new class of high performance,
cost-competitive aluminium casting alloys, using
ICME tools, to deliver a 25% improvement
in component strength relative to components
made with A319 or A356 alloys using sand
and semi-permanent casting processes for
high-performance engine components.
Another USD3.5 million project to be carried
out at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will
investigate High Performance Cast Aluminium
Alloys for Next Generation Passenger Vehicle
Engines. The federal funds are part of a deal
with automakers to develop and implement
cost-effective and improved high performance
cast aluminium alloys that would enable
the design of higher efficiency and cost-competitive
light-duty passenger vehicle engines.
Small batch castings of identified alloys will be
harvested for property measurements.
A project at General Motors will be funded
with USD3.5 million to investigate Computational
Design and Development of a New,
Lightweight Cast Alloy for Advanced Cylinder
Heads in High-efficiency, Light-duty Engines.
The use of ICME tools will be employed to
accelerate the development of a new, highperformance
cast alloy for critical structure
applications, e. g. to produce high-efficiency
automotive engines with minimum lead-time
and cost. Comprehensive cost models will
also be developed for annual production runs
up to 500,000 units of cylinder heads using
the new alloy. This research will particularly
centre on GM’s Flint Engine Operation in
Michigan that produces drive units for several
vehicles, including the Buick Enclave, GMC
Acadia and Chevrolet Volt.
Overall, this range of topical and truly
smart projects are considered to have great
potential, and the results may eventually reap
benefit not only in the USA but also through
technology transfer around the world: lighter
vehicles boost efficiency, and lead to reductions
in fuel consumption, oil imports, GHG
emissions, climate extremes – and, furthermore,
on-going operation costs.
Ken Stanford, contributing editor
64 ALUMINIUM · 3/2013