With the increasingly stringent environmental protection regulations and the improvement of fuel economy, the development of the automobile industry has put energy conservation and emission reduction in the first place. Lightweight materials, as a part of improving the effect of energy saving and emission reduction in the automotive industry, have low-carbon design and low-carbon manufacturing. In terms of design, if the quality of the vehicle is reduced by 10%, the fuel consumption will increase by 6% to 8%. Therefore, the lightweight of the vehicle is an important part of achieving energy saving and emission reduction. The automotive industry, including OEMs and supply chains, has formulated strategies and goals for lightweight automotive products. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to comprehensively consider factors such as body structure design, material selection, and technology. This article mainly expounds the application of lightweight technology in the automobile manufacturing industry from the perspective of material selection and technical manufacturing technology, including the application of aluminum, high-strength steel, composite materials, and connection and manufacturing technology. Then, let's learn about the lightweight materials of the body and Process manufacturing technology!

Selection of lightweight materials for automobiles

Application of thin aluminum sheet

As a relatively mature light metal material, sheet aluminum is more and more widely used in high-precision and difficult-to-shape car bodies. Especially, after the aluminum plate forming technology transitions from 200 temperature forming to normal temperature cold forming, the application of aluminum is more and more. Since 2010, joint venture brands have successively introduced aluminum plate production and manufacturing equipment and technology to domestic models, while domestic and foreign material suppliers also provide imported and domestic materials, it lays the foundation for the domestic body using aluminum. The parts that are used more now are assembled parts such as hair sets, back sets, doors, fenders, etc.

Application of Aluminum Alloy Casting

In addition to the use of aluminum sheet, aluminum cast aluminum is mainly suitable for parts that can be loaded with larger loads. After application, the reduction effect is significant and has high strength. The characteristics of aluminum alloy casting have high ductility, good welding performance and high plasticity, so as to ensure the safety of vehicle collision. For example, automobile shock absorbers use cast aluminum, which is now widely used in automobile housings, engine structures, battery pack parts, etc.

The use of cold-rolled high-strength steel

At present, the automobile industry generally uses cold-rolled high-strength steel with a strength of 210-980 MPa in the important structural parts and safety parts of the car body, which can improve the strength and safety of the car body and achieve lightweight. Including dual phase steel, low alloy high strength steel, sinter hardening steel, etc. With the improvement of the surface quality of high-strength steel, high-strength steel has also been applied to external plate members for the first time. For example, the door outer panel uses CR290Y490 T-DP-GI two-phase high-strength steel, which is 60% stronger than the use of ordinary sintered hardened steel. Thinning thickness can significantly reduce the quality of the body. At present, high-strength steel with a tensile strength of 490 MPa has been applied to the roof and door outer panels. If the high-strength steel is gradually applied to the outer cover, it can make a greater contribution to the remaking of the car body.

Use of hot formed steel sheet

At high temperatures, hot-formed steel sheets have good formability, and the number of parts and weight can be reduced by combining multiple parts for production. In addition, due to the ultra-high strength, the thickness of the parts can be reduced and the quality of each part can be reduced. At present, hot-formed steel plates are widely used in automotive safety parts, such as a-pillars, a-pillars, side beams of the roof, door sills, beams, rear longitudinal beams and other parts. Taking the middle channel as an example, the use of thermoforming technology can reduce 4kg, reducing material costs and mold costs.

The above introduction is the body lightweight materials and process manufacturing technology, if you need to know more, please feel free to contact us!