Patent Application
20150030496
The present invention relates to vehicle parts, and more particularly to wire and wire assembly parts manufactured using an aluminum alloy composition.
The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) are regulations promulgated in the United States for improving the average fuel economy of cars and light trucks (which include vans and sport utility vehicles) sold in the U.S. Historically, a manufacturer's CAFE is the sales-weighted harmonic mean fuel economy, expressed in miles per U.S. gallon (mpg), of a manufacturer's fleet of current model year passenger cars and light trucks with a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of 8,500 pounds (3,856 kg) or less, manufactured for sale in the United States. If the average fuel economy of a manufacturer's annual fleet of vehicle production falls below the defined standard, the manufacturer must pay a penalty equal to a specified U.S. dollar amount per 0.1 mpg under the standard, multiplied by the manufacturer's total production for the U.S. domestic market.
Recently, the automotive industry has been challenged to improve their CAFE requirements from a current fuel economy of 26 mpg to one of 52 mpg by the year 2026. There are a number approaches which can help accomplish this goal, but the primary means that will likely be used will be to reduce the weight of automobiles. To that it would be desirable to develop a lightweight material that can be formed by automotive part forming equipment and be able to satisfy the strength requirements of specified automotive parts.
In this regard, cars, trucks, vans and sport utility vehicles typically include as part of their construction various wire and wire assembly parts having different shapes and forms. These parts can include, for example, door lock and release rods, hood support rods, seat belt guides, battery hold down rods, engine support and guide wires, exhaust hangers, seat support, seat adjustment and seat structure wires.
For many wire part applications the parts to be used must include sharp bends to fit properly within a given environment or application, and they must also include special end treatments to allow the rods to be connected to latches and connecting mechanisms. These parts must also meet certain strength requirements typically specified by a manufacturer to ensure that they will operate properly, such as, for example, a connecting rod used in a vehicle door properly actuating the door's handle and release mechanism. The rods must also be capable of being manufactured using forming, threading and swaging.
The current best practice in automotive manufacturing of wire and wire assemblies is to use steel (typically 1008-1010 mild steel) to form the parts. Any material replacing the steel would need to be manufacturable into products having certain predefined strength, durability and corrosion resistance, and have the ability to be formed, pressed, machined, cold worked and welded.
The present invention is directed to vehicle parts manufactured from a non-heat-treatable, wrought aluminum alloy, and more particularly to wire and wire assembly parts manufactured from the alloy and shaped into different forms that meet certain predetermined strength and bendability requirements and that are capable of being manufactured using manufacturing methods, such as forming, threading and swaging. The aluminum alloy can be used to manufacture parts for automotive, marine and aerospace vehicles. The alloy is a controlled 5000 series type of aluminum alloy in which the aluminum is alloyed primarily with magnesium. One example of a 5000 series type of aluminum alloy is the 5356 alloy composition, which includes the following elements identified as a maximum percentage by weight, that is: 0.25% silicon (Si), 0.4% iron (Fe), 0.1% copper (Cu), 0.05%-0.2% manganese (Mn), 0.05%-0.2% chromium (Cr), 0.1% zinc (Zn), 0.06%-0.2% titanium (Ti), 4.5-5.5% magnesium (Mg), 0.0003% beryllium (Be), 0.15% “other” elements, with each of the other elements being no more than 0.05%, and the remainder of the alloy being aluminum (Al) as the predominant metal.
The aluminum alloy used to manufacture the vehicle parts of the present invention has been known to be used for welding together pieces of aluminum. It is a non-heat-treatable, wrought alloy formed predominantly from aluminum (Al), and includes as its alloying elements silicon (Si), iron (Fe), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), chromium (Cr), zinc (Zn), titanium (Ti), magnesium (Mg), beryllium (Be), and other elements. Magnesium (Mg) is a percentage by weight that is less than the aluminum, but more than the remaining elements forming the aluminum alloy. Specifically, the alloy composition includes the following elements identified as a maximum percentage by weight, that is: 0.09% silicon (Si), 0.19% iron (Fe), 0.01% copper (Cu), 0.1%-0.15% manganese (Mn), 0.1%-0.13% chromium (Cr), 0.01% zinc (Zn), 0.06%-0.11% titanium (Ti), 4.8-5.05% magnesium (Mg), 0.0003% beryllium (Be), 0.1% “other” elements, with each of the other elements being no more than 0.02%, and the remainder of the alloy being aluminum (Al) as the predominant metal.
The concentration of “other” elements is typically as follows: As (Arsenic)<0.005%, Ga (Gallium)<0.01%, V (Vanadium)<0.01%, Pb (Lead)<0.001%, Ni (Nickel)<0.01%, Na (Sodium)<0.0002%, and Ca (Calcium)<0.003%. It should be noted that this concentration of “other” elements can be varied.
The vehicle parts formed from the aluminum alloy are capable of being manufactured using forming, threading and swaging. “Forming” uses stresses, like compression, tension, shear or combined stresses, to cause plastic deformation of a material to produce a required shape. “Threading” is a process of producing a screw thread. Deformative or transformative methods of producing threads include rolling and forming. “Swaging” is a process in which the dimensions of a part are altered by shaping of the aluminum alloy using compressive forces.
The aluminum alloy is also capable of being formed into parts having bends, and particularly, sharp bends of 90° or less. The parts formed from the aluminum alloy also meet the required strength requirements. Parts formed from the aluminum alloy have a tensile strength of 50-60 kilopounds per square inch (ksi) or 345-415 Megapascals (MPa). The parts also have an elongation at break of 7%.
The parts which can be formed using the aluminum alloy include, by way of example, all wire formed parts of a vehicle, such as, door lock and release rods, hood support rods, seat belt guides, battery hold down rods, engine support and guide wires, exhaust hangers, and seat support, seat adjustment and seat structure wires.
Wire and wire assembly parts formed from the aluminum alloy composition can include sharp bends and special end treatments for connections. These parts will also satisfy predetermined manufacturer strength requirements and are capable of being manufactured using forming, threading and swaging. It has been found that for a small increase in product cost (e.g., 5-10%) a manufacturer can achieve an improvement of about 300% in weight savings by manufacturing wire and wire assembly parts using the aluminum alloy composition.
The present invention is directed to vehicle parts manufactured from a non-heat-treatable, wrought aluminum alloy, and more particularly, to wire and wire assembly parts for vehicles manufactured from the alloy. The wire and wire assembly parts are typically shaped into different forms for different applications. These parts can include, by way of example, door lock and release rods, hood support rods, seat belt guides, battery hold down rods, engine support and guide wires, exhaust hangers, and seat support, seat adjustment and seat structure wires.
The door lock and release rod 10 is formed using the disclosed non-heat-treatable, wrought aluminum alloy composition for forming wire and wire assembly parts so that the rod 10 meets certain predetermined strength and bendability requirements and so that the rod 10 is capable of being manufactured using manufacturing methods, such as forming, threading and swaging.
The vehicle parts formed from the aluminum alloy are capable of being manufactured using forming, threading and swaging. “Forming” uses stresses, like compression, tension, shear or combined stresses, to cause plastic deformation of a material to produce a required shape. “Threading” is a process of producing a screw thread. Deformative or transformative methods of producing threads include rolling and forming. “Swaging” is a process in which the dimensions of a part are altered using shaping of the aluminum alloy using localized compressive forces.
The aluminum alloy from which the parts shown in
The concentration of “other” predetermined elements is typically as follows: As (Arsenic)<0.005%, Ga (Gallium)<0.01%, V (Vanadium)<0.01%, Pb (Lead)<0.001%, Ni (Nickel)<0.01%, Na (Sodium)<0.0002%, and Ca (Calcium)<0.003%. It should be noted that this concentration of “other” elements can be varied.
The wire and wire assembly parts made using the aluminum alloy, which are shown in
The wire and wire assembly parts made using the aluminum alloy, which are shown in
The wire and wire assembly parts shown in
While the invention has been described in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
