Design of a magnesium/aluminum door frame
This article reports that die cast magnesium recently has been developed in combination with extruded aluminum, for an automobile door frame, replacing steel with a significant mass reduction over a current production steel door design. Maintaining present product performance requirements such as side-impact protection and overall door stiffness, along with the packaging of existing internal hardware, were major goals in using new materials in an existing application. A current production steel door assembly was the baseline for this study. Investigations began with an anticipation that a minimum 50% mass reduction, compared to the steel design, would be developed with magnesium while meeting all current structural performance criteria. Criteria for evaluation and feasibility were as follows: (1) A current high-volume (>100,000) production door frame, of steel construction for a mid-size, four-door sedan, would be the starting point. (2) Existing computer-aided design (CAD) data had to be available from the existing steel door frame to facilitate both dimensional packaging and computer modeling of the door frame in magnesium. (3) Performance criteria and test data for the current steel door frame had to be readily available and easy to interpret. (4) Manufacturing and production data had to be related to actual production casting parameters compatible with typical magnesium die-casting construction.
- OSTI ID:
- 5875929
- Journal Information:
- Automotive Engineering; (United States), Journal Name: Automotive Engineering; (United States) Vol. 101:5; ISSN 0098-2571; ISSN AUEGBB
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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