News Room 2004 (The former Furukawa-Sky)

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Furukawa-Sky-developed Hot-forming-grade 5000-Series Aluminum Alloy Pipe to be Used on the New Honda Legend

October 7, 2004

Furukawa-Sky and Nippon Steel, in collaboration with Honda Motor, have developed a 5000-series aluminum alloy pipe (Al-Mg) for the automobile sub-frame and proceeded putting it into practical use. The newly developed material will be used for member components on the front and rear sub-frame on the new Honda Legend announced the other day.

In the automotive field, the use of aluminum for structural components, notably the sub-frame, is increasing as vehicle weight reduction becomes more important, with a shift to aluminum for the engine hood and other closure panels taking place. Commonly, the sub-frame aluminum is an alloy pipe hydroformed at room temperature and used in the member components. However, this method offers only limited formability and does not allow efficient sub-frame structural design. Honda therefore developed a pneumatic hot forming technology to improve ductility by forming the material at high temperature. This method significantly raises the limits to forming aluminum alloy pipes.

The aluminum alloy pipes used for this newly developed forming method need to have a high dimensional accuracy and sound metallographic structure after hot forming while maintaining high strength.
Furukawa-Sky is an expert in forming expanded aluminum alloy at high temperature. In collaboration with Nippon Steel and Honda Motor and utilizing this expertise, the company developed the new hot-forming grade 5000-series aluminum alloy pipe, which features optimized alloy content that fulfills the requirements, the dimensional accuracy needed for hot forming, and efficient edge-dressing. Consequently, it was decided to adopt this developed material for the new Honda Legend.

The newly developed material and Honda's new hot-forming technology for aluminum alloy pipes make it possible to form complex shapes that were difficult to manufacture with previous forming methods. This new technology will contribute to further vehicle weight reductions and is expected to have a growing range of applications.