The lightweight of the automobile is to reduce the preparation quality of the vehicle as much as possible under the premise of ensuring the strength and safety performance of the vehicle, so as to improve the power performance of the vehicle, reduce fuel consumption and reduce exhaust pollution. Experiments have shown that if the quality of the car is reduced by half, fuel consumption will be reduced by nearly half. Due to the needs of environmental protection and energy saving, the lightweight of cars has become the trend of automobile development in the world.
China has a broad market for lightweight materials. On the one hand, compared with foreign developed countries, China's lightweight technology starts late, and the average vehicle quality is larger. Taking the proportion of foreign lightweight materials as the benchmark, China still has a lot of room for development; on the other hand, benefiting from the policy drive, the rapid development of China's new energy vehicle industry will drive the demand for lightweight and urge automobile companies to move forward in the direction of lightweight.
It is estimated that the market size of automotive lightweight materials in China will approach RMB 500 billion in the next three years, of which RMB 35 billion will be in the field of new energy vehicles alone. At present, magnesium and aluminum alloy are two ideal materials for automobile lightweight. For aluminum alloy and magnesium alloy, the plan given in the Roadmap of Energy Saving and New Energy vehicle Technology is to reach 190kg and 15kg respectively by 2020. According to the market price of aluminum alloy RMB40, 000/ ton and magnesium alloy RMB100000/ ton, the market space of metal alloy in 2020 is more than RMB 270 billion, of which RMB18 billion is in the field of new energy vehicles.
The main results are as follows: (1) under the premise of continuous optimization of vehicle models with mainstream specifications, the structural strength of the whole vehicle is improved and the consumption of consumables is reduced under the premise of retaining the dimensions of the main parameters.
(2) lightweight materials are used. Such as aluminum, magnesium, ceramics, plastics, glass fiber or carbon fiber materials, etc.;
(3) computer is used to design the structure. Such as the use of finite element analysis, local reinforcement design and so on;
(4) adopt load-bearing body, reduce the thickness of body sheet and so on. Among them, the current main automobile lightweight measures are mainly the use of lightweight materials.
(1) cast aluminum alloy.
Many elements can be used as alloy elements of cast aluminum alloy, but only Si, Cu, Mg, Mn, Zn and Li are of great significance in mass production. Of course, what is widely used in the automobile is not the above simple binary alloy, but the addition of many elements at the same time to obtain good comprehensive properties.
The automotive industry is a major market for aluminum castings, such as Japan, where 76% of aluminum castings and 77% of aluminum die castings are automotive castings. Aluminum alloy castings are mainly used in engine cylinder block, cylinder head, piston, intake manifold, rocker arm, engine mounting bracket, air compressor connecting rod, transmission shell, clutch shell, wheel, brake parts, handle and cover shell parts, etc.
There are inevitable defects in aluminum castings, and die castings can not be heat treated, so it is limited to use aluminum alloy to produce high strength castings. For this reason, the production process of castings has been improved, and casting forging and semi-solid forming will be widely used in the future.
(2) deformed aluminum alloy, deformed aluminum alloy refers to aluminum alloy plate and strip, extruded profiles and forgings, which are mainly used in automobile body panels, body frames, engine radiators, air conditioning condensers, evaporators, wheels, decorations and suspension system parts.
Due to the obvious lightweight effect, the application of aluminum alloy in car body is expanding. For example, the Japanese Honda NSX car, which was sold in September 1990, uses an all-aluminum load-bearing body, which is 200kg lighter than the same body made of cold-rolled steel plate, which has attracted worldwide attention. The aluminum material for the whole vehicle of NSX reaches 31.3%. For example, on the all-aluminum car body, the outer plate uses 6000 series alloy, the inner plate uses 5052 mur0 alloy, and most of the skeleton uses 5182 mur0 alloy; because the side door frame has high requirements for strength and stiffness, use the alloy based on 6N01 alloy and appropriately adjust the content of Mg and Si. In Europe and the United States, 2036 and 2008 alloys are also used as inner and outer panels of the car body.
The application of lightweight materials is a fast and effective choice. In the field of lightweight materials, aluminum alloy has become the main way to realize the development of automobile lightweight because of its low density, high-quality performance and huge stock. at present, aluminum alloy materials have been widely used in Europe, the United States, Japan and other developed countries.
Yuefeng Group is a leading aluminum extrusion enterprise in the world. at present, it has formed a development pattern of three core businesses: industrial aluminum extrusion, aluminum Calendering and deep processing. the company's products have been widely used in green construction, transportation, mechanical equipment and power engineering and other fields, and its customers are all over the world's major markets.
Give us a call at +86 18662963676, email us at sales@profiles-aluminum.com to find out how YueFeng Aluminium can help with your aluminum profile/ aluminium extrusion/ aluminium solutions design.
