AFS NEWS
AFS NEWS “
LIFT Project to Focus on Vacuum-Aided
My sponsored webinar
with Metal Casting Design & Purchasing exceeded all my expectations. I consider this program to be the single best lead generation investment I’ve made in the last 10 years.
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David Weiss Vice President, Sales & Engineering Eck Industries Inc.
Aluminum Diecasting Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow (LIFT), part of
the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, has announced a new project intended to advance technologies for diecasting and heat treating aluminum parts, primarily for aerospace, defense and automotive applications. AFS is a partner in the LIFT consortium. “If we can reduce just a few ounces of metal from auto- mobile engine mounting cradles or the housings that hold transmissions, we can deliver an impact that is multiplied by the millions,” said Larry Brown, executive director, LIFT. “In aerospace, an added benefi t might lower manu- facturing costs as well as increase fuel savings from the lighter weight designs.” Lead partners for the project are Boeing and Ohio
State University, Columbus, Ohio. AFS is assisting with modeling eff orts, technology oversight and dissemination of knowledge on how to manage the new thin-wall alumi- num diecasting process in a production environment. “If you can take a common part, such as an access panel
you see on the wing of an airplane, and use high integrity die castings, it could reduce weight and manufactur- ing costs,” said Russ Cochran, associate technical fellow, Boeing. “We hope to demonstrate that advances in high vacuum diecasting will produce parts that meet all the rigorous performance specifi cations we require, while real- izing weight and effi ciency goals.” In current high-speed aluminum diecasting, microscop- ic air bubbles can form inside the part as the molten metal races through the mold. Engineers allow for that by using more metal and making parts thicker to meet strength and other performance requirements. An important part of the two-year project will be enhancing the ability of computer models to predict the performance of aluminum diecast parts by combining information about the microstructure of the metal with a host of design and production parameters. T e process, called integrated computational materials engineering (ICME), has great potential for reducing the time to de- sign and qualify new components for vehicles. Eaton, Alcoa, Comau and Nemak are among other in-
dustry partners on the project. Research participants include Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Southwest Research Insti- tute, the University of Michigan and Massachusetts Institute for Technology. T e North American Die Casting Associa- tion (NADCA) joins AFS as liaisons to the industry. LIFT is operated by the American Lightweight Mate-
METALCASTINGDESIGN.COM 52 | MODERN CASTING October 2015
rials Manufacturing Institute and was selected through a competitive process led by the U.S. Department of Defense. It is one of the founding institutes in the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation, a federal initiative to create regional hubs to accelerate the development and adoption of cutting-edge manufacturing technologies.
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