AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT Archives - Page 34 of 36

Bodycote Opens New Georgia Heat Treatment Plant

Bodycote, the world’s largest thermal processing services provider, is pleased to announce that its new heat treatment plant in Covington, GA is now open.

The brand new 60,000²ft facility, established to replace the existing Conyers plant, will primarily serve automotive and general industrial customers, offering all of the processes and capabilities which had been offered at the Conyers location as well as the addition of ferritic nitrocarburizing.

At more than double the size of the plant it replaces, the new Covington facility immediately increases the capacity available to serve the Georgia and Florida marketplaces with a wide range of heat treatment processes.

This investment is part of Bodycote’s further expansion in the Southeast USA. Bodycote is committed to offering world-class heat treating services and is investing in improvements as part of an ongoing strategy to provide the best possible capabilities, mix and geographical network to better serve customers.

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Foundry Sector’s Expectations

June 27, 2016 / AEROSPACE HEAT TREAT, AEROSPACE HEAT TREAT NEWS, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS, FOUNDRY CASTING NEWS, HEAT TREAT NEWS INDUSTRIES

Source: Foundry Gate

“India is the third largest manufacturer of metal castings globally, producing approx 10 million tonnes of castings in various metals.

The Institute of Indian Foundrymen (IIF) is the apex industry body promoting the competitiveness of India’s foundry industry. There are about 5,000 foundries in India largely in the MSME category.

The foundry or metal casting industry is a key component feeder for the various sectors such as auto, auto components, railways, agro, tractors, textile, cement making, electrical machinery, earthmoving machinery, power equipment, defence equipment, and aero and space industry its sustainable growth has become more important today than ever before given the emphasis of the government on “Make in India”.

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New Steel Alloy is Both Strong and Ductile

June 24, 2016 / AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS

Source: Materials Today

“For the steel industry, there may now be a way out of a dilemma that has existed ever since people first began processing metal. In a paper in Nature, scientists at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung in Düsseldorf, Germany, report a new type of metallic material that is both extremely strong and highly ductile. Up to now, one of these material properties could only be improved at the expense of the other, but this new advance could alter that trade-off, leading to the creation of lighter metallic components with thinner walls.”

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Magna International Inc Ready to Manufacture Vehicles for New Entrants as Apple Rumours Swirl

June 17, 2016 / AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS

Source: Financial Post

“I think people always overestimate how quickly a new player that doesn’t make a vehicle can actually come to market with a vehicle, but I’m sure there will be some new entrants at some point in time,” he told reporters after the meeting.

“And because we have the capability of full vehicle manufacturing and engineering … if somebody new comes into the market, they would certainly be talking to us.”

Magna International Inc Ready to Manufacture Vehicles for New Entrants as Apple Rumours Swirl Read More »

Reduced Heat Treatment Requirements for Components Made with Aluminum-Cerium Alloys

June 14, 2016 / ALUMINUM PROCESSING NEWS, ALUMINUM PROCESSING TECHNICAL CONTENT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS

Source: Engineering 360

“The key to the alloys’ high-temperature performance is a specific aluminum-cerium compound, or intermetallic, that forms inside the alloys as they are melted and cast. This intermetallic melts only at temperatures above 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

That heat tolerance makes aluminum-cerium alloys very attractive for use in internal combustion engines, Rios says. Tests have shown them to be stable at 300 degrees Celsius, a temperature that would cause traditional alloys to begin disintegrating. In addition, the stability of this intermetallic sometimes eliminates the need for heat treatments typically required for aluminum alloys.

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Flex-N-Gate to Build $95M Plant in Detroit to Supply Ford

June 9, 2016 / AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS

Source: Today’s Motor Vehicles

“Flex-N-Gate owner Shahid Khan says his company will invest $95 million in construction and capital costs for a Detroit-area facility that will supply parts to Ford Motor Co. Potential additional investment in the project could push the project to at least $100 million. Khan says the project will create at least 400 and up to 650 new jobs in Detroit over the next three years; at full capacity, up to 750 total jobs could be added.”

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Automotive Supplier in Alabama Purchases Heat Treatment System from Can -Eng Furnaces

June 9, 2016 / AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS

CAN-ENG Furnaces International Limited has been contracted by a large Canadian-based Tier 1 Automotive Supplier located in Alabama to design, manufacture and commission an automated T-7 Heat Treatment System for the processing of high integrity aluminum automotive structural castings. CAN-ENG is a global expert in the design of thermal processing solutions for high pressure die castings (HPDC) and aluminum automotive structural components. CAN-ENG’s technology was chosen for this new light-weighting project because it offers inherent part handling features that reduce floor space requirements and energy consumption. The technology also provides predictable mechanical properties and maintains the dimensional stability of the casting.

The T-7 cell includes Robotic Handling, a Solution and Age Furnace with CAN-ENG’s Precision Air Quench (PAQ ™) technology, and controls integrated into a Level II SCADA system. CAN-ENG’s PAQ™ system offers a unique combination of recirculating air chambers, distribution nozzles, dampers and directional ductwork. Analysis of CFD modelling by CAN-ENG’s R and D Center ensures that the Precision Air Quench System (PAQ™) delivers controlled quench media to the casting, leading to repeatable and uniform mechanical properties and accurate dimensional results. CAN-ENG’s T-7 heat treatment system is integrated with up and down stream processing operations, reducing W.I.P inventories. It is scheduled to be commissioned in the summer of 2016 with a second phase to follow in 2017.

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Automotive Engineers Look at Honing after Heat Treating

June 6, 2016 / AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS

Source: Manufacturing Engineering

“Another dramatic change in the process itself is the move away from first hobbing a gear, then shaving it and then heat treating it. Hobbing is a multipoint cutting process that rotates both tool and workpiece in precise relations to each other. It is used to rough cut multiple gear teeth at once. “Today, automakers are hobbing gears, heat treating them and then grinding them post-heat treat. This provides a harder, more robust gear. Post-heat treat finishing of these gears eliminates distortion or changes of geometry in that gear set. The tolerance requirement after grinding is pretty critical,” he said.”

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Magna Announces New Aluminum Casting Facility in the UK

June 3, 2016 / ALUMINUM PROCESSING NEWS, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS, FOUNDRY CASTING NEWS

Magna International Inc. today announced it will build a new world-class aluminum casting facility in Telford, United Kingdom, to support Jaguar Land Rover, the UK’s leading vehicle manufacturer.

The new facility is expected to be approximately 225,000 square feet and will create up to 295 jobs at full capacity. Working with the UK Trade & Investment and the Automotive Investment Organization, along with financial support from the UK Government’s Regional Growth Fund, helped to secure this project. Construction is expected to start in the autumn of 2016.

Once production begins in 2018, the facility will use Magna’s innovative high-pressure vacuum die casting process to produce a number of advanced lightweight aluminum castings– a key building block in the next generation all-aluminum and multi-material vehicle architectures. By using these types of castings, Magna helps automakers deliver maximum strength and stiffness and minimum weight, ultimately achieving better fuel economy, safety and handling.

“We are excited to work closely with Jaguar Land Rover in the development of this project which will bring the most advanced structural casting technologies to the UK,” said John Farrell, President of Cosma International, an operating unit of Magna International. “As lightweighting continues to be a key technology driver, we are uniquely positioned to help automakers achieve optimal weight savings throughout the vehicle architecture.”

Magna, through its Cosma International operating unit, is one of the world’s premier suppliers providing a comprehensive range of body, chassis and engineering solutions to automakers around the world.

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Automotive Aluminum Extrusion Market Grows

June 3, 2016 / ALUMINUM PROCESSING NEWS, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT, AUTOMOTIVE HEAT TREAT NEWS, FEATURED NEWS

Source: Today’s Motor Vehicles – May/June 2016

Making Aluminum Extrusions

Dave Lukasak, director of metallurgy at Sapa Group, explains the process used to create extruded aluminum parts.

Cast logs – A furnace melts primary aluminum, aluminum scrap, and alloying elements to create the alloy. Workers then transfer the molten metal to a casting table where logs are cast in vertical, semi-continuous process. The end result are logs 200″ to 300″ in length.

Homogenize – Ingot casting is a non-equilibrium process, so solidification results in a non-uniform structure that could lead to micro-scale, non-uniform properties in the final product. To counter this, the cast logs are heated to approximately 570°C, depending on the alloy. The resultant metal has a more uniform structure better suited for extrusion and creation of the final product. After homogenization the logs are cooled quickly to lock the uniform structure in place.

Extrusion – Billets and the tool-steel die are heated to between 490°C and 520°C. An extrusion press then forces the billet through the small opening in the die using about 90,000psi. Temperature control is critical as deformation from squeezing material through the die opening increases the temperature of the aluminum significantly. If the temperature of the ingot is too hot, the heat of deformation can take the aluminum to a temperature where tearing occurs as the profile emerges from the die. If the temperature is too low, the physical strength of the final extrusion can be compromised. Employees use two-dimensional dies to create flat profiles or three-dimensional ones to create more complex shapes such as boxed beams. Cathleen Rutsey, an automotive applications engineer at Sapa, says she keeps an old Play-Doh press in her office to demonstrate the basics of controlling extrusion shapes.

Quench – Parts are air-cooled or water-cooled, upon exiting the press, depending on the shape, alloy, and intended use. Quenching locks elements in solid solution critical for developing the final strength of those extrusions that are heat treatable, such as 6000 series alloys.

Age – Finished parts are heated from 175°C to 230°C for up to 12 hours. Following aging, material strength will continue to increase for about a week, so Lukasak says it’s important to use a first-in-first-out (FIFO) inventory management system.

Precipitation aging – Heat-treatable aluminum alloys require artificial aging to achieve the required mechanical properties for the intended application. For 6000 series alloys, extrusions are heated to approximately 175°C to for up to eight hours – specific practices are alloy dependent. If a customer needs to form extrusions, doing so in the precipitation-aged condition can result in cracking, so some customers purchase unaged extrusions to have softer material that has better forming properties. Lukasak adds that even at room temperature, heat-treatable extrusion alloys continue to gain strength through what is termed natural aging. The initial increase is rapid with a 25% to 30% increase in strength in 2 to 10 days, so first-in-first-out inventory management helps create a more consistent forming operation.

Automotive Aluminum Extrusion Market Grows Read More »

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