News Room 2004 (The former Furukawa-Sky)
Furukawa-Sky-developed Hot-forming 5000-series Aluminum Alloy Sheet to be Used in the new Honda Legend
October 7, 2004
Furukawa-Sky and Nippon Steel have jointly developed with Honda Motors a new 5000-series aluminum (Al-Mg) alloy sheet for high-temperature blow molding and preceded putting it into practical use. We have decided to use the newly developed material for the trunk lid and frame of the newly debuted Legend.
Aluminum is increasingly being used for automotive parts such as the engine hood to meet requirements for reducing vehicle weight. However, when manufacturing vehicle panel parts of aluminum alloy sheet, press forming at room temperature imposes limits that constrain design and areas of application. This time, Honda has pursued a policy of expanding the limits of formation of aluminum alloy sheet and subsequently developed a method of forming using pneumatic pressure to improve ductility by heating the material at high temperature, and has applied this method to the manufacturing of mass produced vehicles.
The aluminum alloy sheet used for this new forming method needs to have a sound metallographic structure and maintains high strength after hot forming, in addition to being low in cost.
Furukawa-Sky learned many things from the developmental testing of its superplastic aluminum alloy sheet "ALNOVI" about forming aluminum alloy sheet at high temperatures. Nippon Steel, Furukawa-Sky, and Honda Motor utilized this knowledge to optimize the chemical composition in the standard alloy, succeeding in the development of the 5000-series aluminum alloy sheet for high-temperature blow molding, while meeting the conditions mentioned above. As a result, this developed 5000-series aluminum alloy sheet came to be adopted for the new Honda Legend.
The newly developed material and Honda's new hot-forming technology are expected to open the way for a switch to aluminum for components that were previously difficult to manufacture using conventional aluminum forming methods. This new technology will contribute to further vehicle weight reductions and is expected to have a growing range of applications.