Abstract
The life cycle holistic approach for the automotive sector highlighted how much important is working on decarbonisation of Al casting processes to produce vehicle components. Broadening the use of recycled aluminium alloys, instead of high energy intensive primary aluminium alloys, is key for environment preservation. While primary aluminium alloys are preferred by automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) because impurities (mainly Fe) present in secondary aluminium alloys might cause fatigue properties decay, a new semisolid state process route has been developed at Brembo to drastically reduce the sensitivity of cast aluminium to Fe impurities. Based on these premises, during the CRAL European project in the framework of the LIFE Programme, an industrial prototype machinery - a vertical high pressure die casting machine - has been designed and constructed to inject secondary aluminium in the semisolid state. A number of A357 Fe-enriched brake callipers manufactured via the new process route have been fully investigated by fatigue tests, SEM and OM analyses in order to validate the new eco-sustainable product compared to conventional ones manufactured with primary aluminium by gravity casting.
Highlights
It is common knowledge today that lightweight vehicles are fundamental for decreasing traffic-related pollutant emissions by conventional internal combustion engine powered vehicles
The use of secondary aluminium alloys derived from recycling patterns instead of primary aluminium alloys would allow a 95% net energy saving and a 80% reduction in total greenhouse gases emissions, avoiding any type of chemicals [7,8]
The high-pressure rheo-casting industrial process developed in the CRAL project appears to be consistent with the metallurgy phenomena indicating that the higher is the refinement of the primary globular cells, the lower is the growth rate of the intermetallic phases forming in the eutectic spaces
Summary
It is common knowledge today that lightweight vehicles are fundamental for decreasing traffic-related pollutant emissions by conventional internal combustion engine powered vehicles. Original equipment manufacturer (hereinafter OEMs for brevity) use mostly primary Al-based alloys This choice is due to the fact that the use of recycled aluminium could introduce some metal impurities such as iron and manganese, residual of recycling patterns. Such impurities are detrimental for the toughness of final cast components because they cause the precipitation, during the solidification phase, of hazardous needle-like or blocky phases [9,10,11,12]. Conventional casting technologies such as gravity casting or low and high pressure die casting produce coarse intermetallic β-Al5FeSi platelets, resulting in poorer mechanical properties
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