Aluminum automotive structural members
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- US · United States
- Patent Type
- Applications(United States)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- COMMONWEALTH INDS
- Publication Date
- 2006-03-02
- Estimated Expiration
- Not applicable · inactive patent
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Abstract
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] This invention relates to aluminum alloy vehicular structural parts or members and more particularly, it relates to a method of casting aluminum alloy into sheet having good forming characteristics and to forming the sheet into vehicular structural parts or members such as dash panel, floor panel, door panel, window trim, radio bracket, reinforcements for panels, etc.
[0002] In many instances, continuous casting of molten aluminum into slab utilizing twin belt, twin roll or block casters is favored over DC casting because continuous casting can result in substantial energy savings and total conversion cost savings compared to the DC cast method. In the continuous casting process, molten metal is continuously introduced to an advancing mold and a slab is produced which may be continuously formed into a sheet product which is collected or wound into a coil. However, the continuous casting is not without problems. For example, it has been discovered t...