At present, cost reduction is the main research direction for titanium alloy used in the automobile industry. In view of the characteristics of cost distribution of titanium alloy used in the automobile industry, material research, and development work in this paper mainly from the following two aspects to achieving the purpose of cost reduction: developing new low-cost alloy systems and using new processing technology.
1. New low-cost titanium alloy system. The research and development of a new low-cost titanium alloy system mainly focus on the following aspects: alloy design using cheap alloy elements and improving the processing characteristics of alloy design. Two low-cost titanium alloys, Namely Ti8LC and Ti12LC, have been successfully developed in China. Cheap alloy elements such as Fe, Cr, Si, and Al are commonly used in the composition design of low-cost titanium alloy for vehicles.
2. New processing and preparation technology. The processing cost of titanium alloy material in the production process accounts for more than 60% of the total cost, so in terms of cost reduction, how to reduce the processing cost of titanium alloy has become the focus of research. The research is mainly divided into two aspects: one is to improve the traditional casting and forging process, and the other is to use the powder metallurgy near-net forming technology.
Titanium metal has the advantages of small density, high specific strength, and good corrosion resistance. Automobiles using titanium material can greatly reduce the body mass, reduce fuel consumption, improve the efficiency of the engine, improve the environment and reduce noise. However, due to its high price, titanium alloy can only be used in luxury models and sports cars, but rarely in ordinary cars. Therefore, the research and development of low-cost titanium alloy to meet the needs of the market is the key to promoting its application in ordinary family cars. In the development of a new forging process, cold forging is one of the most promising methods for titanium alloy manufacturing automobile parts. β titanium alloy has low deformation resistance at room temperature, good cutting, and forming, and can be cold forging material. At present, Japan has developed three kinds of cold deformation β titanium alloy. β titanium alloy also has some shortcomings, it is easy to produce uneven deformation in cold forging, and easy to adhere to the mold, so the mass production of β titanium alloy parts by cold forging technology needs further exploration and development.
60% of the burning energy of automobile fuel is consumed by its own mass. Although currently high strength thin steel plate, aluminum, magnesium, metal matrix composite materials, and plastic resin materials have played a role in reducing the weight of automobiles, the emergence of industrial titanium materials makes automobile manufacturing a better choice. Multi-piece titanium alloy wheel has two and three pieces, several parts of the wheel are respectively made by forging and spinning process, and then connected with titanium bolts. These products are light in quality, high strength, and superior performance, but expensive. They are mainly used in all kinds of championship racing cars and high-end luxury cars. In various levels of global car racing, cars and motorcycles, whether under what conditions, can require vehicle speed within a short 3 s to accelerate from zero to 100 km/h, so the wheels need to be on the track to withstand due to extremely high lateral acceleration, high speed and overload running condition of the harsh conditions and produce, And the impact of temperature rise caused by intense tire wear in this environment, the multi-piece aluminum wheel has withstood the test of a variety of tough conditions. Although the product quality is light, due to the use of advanced manufacturing technology, the product structure strength is high, and the combination of multi-piece modeling gives people a thick and solid feeling.
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