Those studious minds at the University of Exeter (logo, pictured) have made a significant breakthrough with aluminium that could result in the creation of lightweight, complex parts for car manufacturing that are drastically less expensive than existing materials.
Their development is a new method for creating three-dimensional reinforced aluminium composite parts and makes use of Selective Laser Melting.
Selective Laser Melting allows components to be built up by melting successive layers of powder with a laser source. In terms of creating reinforced aluminium composites, the technique could potentially be used to manufacture pistons, suspension components, brake discs and drive shafts ? indeed almost any structural component of a car or aeroplane.
As an added bonus it will allow for lightweight structural designs that could further reduce the weight of vehicles, assisting them to better fuel efficiency.
Aluminium is already being used widely for parts for cars because it is already relatively light and can rely on reinforcement particles to boost its strength. Usually however, it relies on inaccurate and expensive methods such as casting and mechanical alloying.
Now however, the Selective Laser Melting processes will allow parts with complex shapes to be produced easily ? with the new materials having very fine particles compared to other composites and generally being more robust. When reactions occur between constituents, the result is a higher release of energy that allows materials to be produced faster without requiring the same level of power. This is both cheaper and more sustainable than usual Selective Laser Melting processes.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheGreenCarWebsite/~3/raH6syZPY64/
vince young evan longoria carrie underwood jessica simpson ryan seacrest kentucky derby beltane
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