Abstract
The automotive industry has provided the driving force for the development and production of new die casting alloys. Backed by recent demands from the automotive industry, a new high pressure die casting alloy was developed for applications to structural components of passenger cars.
Experiments were carried out through tensile tests on vacuum pressure die casting plates with various chemical compositions modified from the conventional ductile alloy for pressure die casting, Al-Si-Mg alloy. As a result, the developed alloy was found to limit the magnesium content below 0.04% to prevent long term aging of alloy, and contain molybdenum and zirconium of 0.15% respectively to improve the yield strength in the as cast state. The new alloy also exhibited good performances which satisfy the requirements of the automotive industry, with elongation higher than 10%, yield strength higher than 120MPa in the as cast state, and easy castability. The castability of new alloy was significantly improved over Al-Si-Mg die-casting alloys.
Self pierce riveting trials were also done. The new alloy in the as cast state showed good results in self pierce riveting trials through die design modification.
