Foresight for Volume Produced Cast Aluminium Components -An Integrated Design Approach 2002-01-1937
The use of cast aluminium components offers the prospect of substantial weight savings in many modern automotive vehicles. However component designers often do not have the necessary skills or data to optimise the mechanical properties of castings. In the UK, automotive companies, foundries and computer modellers have therefore joined forces to develop design procedures that integrate computer simulation of casting phenomena with in-service stress analysis of the corresponding components. These procedures have been applied to a prototype component to illustrate the substantial improvements that can be attained with this approach.