It is recorded that indians were the first to use aluminum to make automobile crankcase in 1896.In the early 20th century, aluminum had a certain application in manufacturing luxury cars and racing cars. Cars with aluminum body began to appear, such as Henry Ford's Model T car and ferrari 360 racing cars on the European circuit in the 1920s and 1930s.
Aluminum has the characteristics of low density, good corrosion resistance, and good plasticity of aluminum alloy, casting, forging, stamping process are applicable, the most suitable for auto parts production die casting process.From the cost of production, parts quality and material utilization from several aspects such as comparison, aluminum alloy has become a car production indispensable important materials, aluminum alloy as a typical light metal is widely used in foreign cars, foreign auto aluminum alloy parts mainly include piston, cylinder head, clutch shell, the oil pan, bumper, heat exchanger, stents, wheels, car plate and decorative parts, etc.).At present, the United States, Japan and Germany are the countries with the most aluminum alloy used in automobiles, such as Volkswagen AudiA8 and A2 in Germany and NXS in Japan. The amount of aluminum alloy used in automobile bodies reaches 80%.In addition to the aluminum alloy used by Shanghai santana, faw audi and jetta (all of which are imported production lines), China has more red flags, about 80 ~ 100kg.It is shown that the aluminum alloy structure can be used to replace the traditional steel structure, which can reduce the quality of the automobile by 30% ~ 40%, reduce the engine by 30% and reduce the wheel by 50%.Aluminum alloy is one of the important ways for automobile to be light weight, environmental protection, energy saving, speed up and transportation efficiency.Therefore, it is very necessary to research and develop aluminum alloy automobile.
The main advantages of aluminum alloy are light weight and good heat dissipation.With the development of engine technology, four-air valve structure has become the main trend of engine design.Compared with two-valve engine, each cylinder four-valve cylinder head than each cylinder two-valve cylinder head in the work to generate more heat, the use of all-aluminum alloy cylinder head is the best solution.
At present, car engine parts not only piston, radiator, oil sump cylinder block use aluminum alloy material, and cylinder head, crankcase also use this material.In the current form, the use of aluminum alloy in the engine instead of cast iron has become the mainstream trend.French car aluminum cylinder sleeve has reached 100%, aluminum cylinder body up to 45%.In the next few years, with the development of high strength and high quality aluminum alloy materials and the continuous improvement of manufacturing technology, aluminum alloy materials will be more and more used to manufacture such parts.