Although rheocasting is widely used for the production of thin-walled components, thick-walled rheocast components are not yet common. In this paper, thick-walled semi-solid cast components were manufactured using serial production equipment. The aim of the investigation was to replace components made of spheroidal graphite cast iron (SGI) and conventionally cast aluminium in order to lower the weight of the truck, and still fulfill the high demands set on serial production. The rheocasting process used was a modified Rapid-S process coupled with a TX630 aluminium alloy and T5 or T7 heat treatment. Two different serial production rheocast components were fatigue tested by means of constant amplitude rig testing in order to define Wöhler curves. Moreover, multi-axial shake testing with signals recorded from proving ground was carried out. Fracture surfaces as well as metallographic samples were investigated.

Company SAG (Salzburger Aluminium AG) is a supplier of fuel tanks, LNG and hydraulic tanks, air reservoirs and structural applications for the commercial vehicle and automotive industry. The company’s expertise is welding but SAG also has a 25 years history in Semi-Solid casting starting in 1993 when the first Thixocasting cell was installed in Lend/Austria. Since then SAG is participating on the diverse casting market and competes with other processes looking for applications for which Semi-Solid processing has a unique selling proposition. This contribution gives examples of industrialized components and will outline their significant characteristics and advantages in comparison to conventional casting processes. Furthermore the development of Semi-Solid cast components, the production process chain as well as commercial aspects will be outlined. The bottom line is that usually it is not a single advantage of Semi-Solid casting that will make a product attractive for the customer but a combination of several of them. Moreover it is not just the casting process itself but the efficiency of the whole production process chain that will result in a commercially successful product.

Lightweight design is essential for an economic and environmentally friendly vehicle. Aluminium sheet metal is well known for its ability to improve the strength to weight ratio of lightweight structures. One disadvantage of aluminium is that it is less formable than steel. Therefore complex part geometries can only be realized by expensive multi-step production processes. One method for overcoming this disadvantage is deep drawing at elevated temperatures. In this way the formability of aluminium sheet metal can be improved significantly, and the number of necessary production steps can thereby be reduced. This paper introduces deep drawing of aluminium sheet metal at elevated temperatures, a corresponding simulation method, a characteristic process and its optimization. The temperature and strain rate dependent material properties of a 5xxx series alloy and their modelling are discussed. A three dimensional thermomechanically coupled finite element deep drawing simulation model and its validation are presented. Based on the validated simulation model an optimised process strategy regarding formability, time and cost is introduced.

In order to reduce CO2 emission and energy consumption, more recycled secondary materials have to be used in foundry industry, especially for Al-Si-Mg based alloys for semi-solid processing. In this paper, Al-Si-Mg based alloys with the addition of recycled secondary materials up to 30 % (10, 20, 30 %, respectively) have been produced by semi-solid processing. The solidification microstructure was investigated using optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Furthermore, computed tomography (CT) was also used to elucidate the size, size distribution, number density, volume fraction of porosities. It was found that with the addition of the recycled secondary materials up to 30 %, there is no significant effect on the solidification microstructure in terms of the grain size and the shape factor of primary α-Al and the second α-Al. More importantly, the morphology of eutectic Si can be well modified and that of the Fe-containing phase (π-AlSiMgFe) can be tailored. Furthermore, with increasing recycled secondary materials, at least another two important issues should also be highlighted. Firstly, more TiB2 particles were observed, which can be due to the addition of Al-Ti-B grain refiners for the grain refinement of recycled secondary materials. Secondly, a significant interaction between Sr and P was also observed in the recycled secondary materials. The present investigation clearly demonstrates that Al-Si-Mg based alloys with the addition of recycled secondary materials at least up to 30% can be used for semi-solid processing, which may facilitate better sustainability.