New Dispersion Strengthened Low Cost Ductile Cast Iron for Light Weight Components (DILIGHT)

Start - Finish:

2001-2004

Research Conducted by:

Dr. A. Clegg

Keywords:

Materials science, materials processing, LCA

Industrial collaborators:

Elkem ( a producer of alloying materials)
Flender Guss (a foundry)
Centro Ricerche Fiat (an end-user of castings)

Aims & Objectives:

• To use processing and alloying procedures that enable appropriate structures and strength to be developed in thin section ductile iron castings.

• To evaluate the environmental implications of substituting this new material for existing ferrous and non-ferrous materials used in automotive castings.

Brief Description

The consortium consists of the three industrial partners plus three research institutions. The project consists of three principal activity phases. The first deals with the materials science and has the objective of determining the necessary chemistry of the alloy. The second phase involves the material processing to ensure that successful automotive castings can be produced. The third stage consists of the Loughborough project to evaluate the environmental implications of using the new alloy. The LU project has used Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) to compare the environmental performance of the new alloy with existing iron and aluminium alloy alternatives. The objective of this analysis was to identify the environmental break-even point at which the substitution of aluminium for iron becomes environmentally desirable. This approach recognises that the weight saving and associated fuel saving delivered by aluminium in the use phase must first be offset by the very high environmental load caused by the production of primary aluminium.

Publications

1. Potential for Vehicle Weight Reduction Using a New Ductile Cast Iron . A J Clegg, T Staikos and C J Backhouse. Proceedings of the 2 nd International Conference on Design and Manufacture for Sustainable Development, 3-4 September 2003, Cambridge, UK, p93-106. ISBN 1 86058 427 6.

2. Reducing the Environmental Impacts of Castings by Life-cycle Management . C J Backhouse, A J Clegg and T Staikos. Progress in Industrial Ecology, 1, 1-3, 2004, pxx. ISSN-1476-8917. Status: accepted for publication.