HOT STAMPING LIGHT ALLOYS

Hot stamping now provides a new opportunity to address one of the challenges for the introduction of light alloy automotive parts, namely their lack of formability. This project aims to address the two key challenges hindering wide application of hot-stamping of aluminium alloys: (a) characterisation of the forming and failure behaviour of light metals at high temperature, as a basis for expanding the processing window, and (b) understanding the wear of the tooling to increase tool lifespan. This work will involve the hot stamping of 6000 and 7000 series alloys. Aluminium is incredibly adhesive ("sticky") when formed at high temperatures. Deakin and its partners have developed some surface treatments for aluminium extrusion tooling, however, much more work needs to be done to understand the mechanisms that affect the formability and wear when hot stamping aluminium alloys. The resulting knowledge will be of considerable interest to automotive companies, including industry partner Ford. Thus, this work will involve the development and characterisation of galling mechanisms with regard to aluminium alloy/ steel interaction, at high temperature.