Lightweighting Metals Institute looks to toughen up aluminum

The Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (LIFT) consortium has announced its first two technology accleration projects to develop lighter cast iron and harder die-cast aluminum. The consortium is operated by the public/private American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute (ALMMII).

The institute, which opened the doors of its research facility in January, aims to help move existing, innovative lightweight metals into mature processes that can then be quickly scaled up for production. At the same time, projects will also focus on reducing the design and integration time for implementing new metals in new products, as well as devising more affordable automated manufacturing processes. The institute will also verify and validate products via testing and pilot production runs, and train materials design and manufacturing workers in Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME).

ICME combines design and production parameters with data about a new metal's microstructure to predict how parts made with the metal will perform, said Larry Brown, executive director of LIFT. The use of this emerging discipline could cut design and test time of new components made with the new materials and manufacturing processes. The technology have both defense and commercial applications.

The consortium's aluminium related project aims to cut manufacturing costs and part weights in transportation applications by advancing technologies used to die cast and heat-treat aluminum parts. The two-year project will use a high-speed, vacuum-aided, aluminum die-casting process to produce airplane wing access panels and then heat-treat them to increase hardness.

Instead of compensating for the microscopic bubbles that form in parts during current high-speed aluminum die casting by making parts thicker, Ohio State University says bubbles can be eliminated before the molten metal flows. This has already been demonstrated in the lab. ICME will be an important part of this project by enhancing the computer models' ability to predict the performance of aluminum die-cast parts. Additional project partners include Eaton, Alcoa, FCA (Chrysler), Comau, and Nemak in industry, along with the American Foundry Society and the North American Die Casting Association. Additional research participants include Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Southwest Research Institute, University of Michigan, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

With nearly 90 industrial and academic partners in the LIFT consortium, Brown said he expects to be regularly announcing a lot more technology projects. LIFT is also working on several education and workforce development initiatives. "What's just as important as the technology and the alloys is workforce development," said Brown. "What good is it to develop new technology if you don't have a workforce with the know-how to implement it or use it? We need to make sure we have people who are well trained in the innovations we're generating."