British aluminum diecaster Sarginsons Industries Ltd. is part of a research program aiming to demonstrate that vehicle chassis weights can be reduced without affecting mechanical integrity. The Performance Integrated Vehicle Optimisation Technology project (PIVOT) project has earned a £6 million (est. $7.9 million) from two research agencies in that country – the Advanced Propulsion Centre and Innovate UK – and seeks to develop design software capable of adapting “organic designs,” to cut vehicles’ component weight by up to 30%.
The research team includes automaker Aston Martin and simulation software developer Altair.
It’s expected that the new software will provide a simulation-based design process for the parts, cutting development time and cost, and reducing time to market.
According to Coventry, England-based Sarginsons, PIVOT will combine metal solidification, digital twin simulation, and topological optimization into a single software solution. A second stage of the project will aim to improve the strength of recycled aluminum alloys, and the final stage will work to industrialize the organic designs produced by the topological optimization process.
The metalcaster expects the new software will help its automotive and other customers by allowing them to control casting development and reduce manufacturing risks.
Another part of the research – in support of Advanced Propulsion Centre’s worker toward “a net zero automotive industry” – is studying how secondary (i.e., recycled) aluminum may be adopted for casting structural parts, using selected alloys to reduce carbon content by up to 95% in increase ductility for crash safety.
Another part of the project will have Sarginsons working with Brunel University and metal recycling experts to develop grain structure refinement, to overcome impurities inherent in recycled aluminum.
The research also will be developing a new, U.K.-based recycling network for secondary aluminum, to shift away from using primary aluminum for automotive parts.