Composite Extrusion of Thin Aluminum Profiles with High Reinforcing Volume

Abstract

Extruded aluminium profiles with a variety of different cross-sections are mainly used in lightweight structures for transportation means. Examples are stringer profiles in the fuselage of airplanes or profiles in chassis of trains and cars. Nowadays, the mass reduction of a lightweight structure is an important issue to achieve lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. With an increased portion of aluminium profiles the mass of structures can be reduced considerably in contrast to the application of steel parts, due to the lower density of aluminium. However, this is coupled with disadvantages such as the lower specific stiffness and strength of the material. One possibility to improve the mechanical properties of aluminium profiles without a considerable increase of their weight is the embedding of reinforcing elements during the extrusion process. Special porthole extrusion dies are used to feed reinforcing elements in form of high strength steel wires separate from the aluminium material flow. In the welding chamber of the die both materials bond together to a composite profile. To achieve a high advantage of the technology for lightweight applications a high reinforcing volume of aluminium profiles is targeted. A comparatively high reinforcing volume can be reached either by a high number of reinforcing elements or through a reduction of the profile wall thickness. A high number of reinforcing elements leads to a small distance between the single elements in the profile cross-section. The paper will show the results of an experimental and numerical analysis which were carried out to determine the minimum distance between the reinforcing elements as well as the minimum profile thickness. In the trials different arrangements of the elements in the profile cross-section and profile thicknesses were considered. Main parameters which have an influence on the process stability were analyzed and a process window for the manufacture of thin profiles with high reinforcing volume was deduced.