Aluminum 7075 can be welded, the future of cars and aircraft will be more durable and fuel efficient

From the 40s of the last century, people have created an aluminum alloy (called AA 7075) with a hardness equivalent to steel but weighing only 1/3, it promises to be used in industry. car industry. However, this alloy can not be soldered, which is a common technique to make the chassis and engine components. Until recently, with improvements in technology, AA 7075 aluminum alloy could be welded thanks to an interesting solution from the University of California.

The aluminum alloy is difficult to weld because when heated, its molecular structure creates an uneven flow of elements including aluminum, zinc, magnesium and copper, which causes cracks to form along. solder. Engineers at the University of California, Los Angeles engineering school have devised ways to insert titanium carbide nanoparticles - microscopic in size, one billionth of a meter into a welding rod.

AA 7075 aluminum alloy can help vehicles save fuel as well as achieve greater energy efficiency with electric vehicles.

In this way, the researchers created welds with tensile strength up to 392 megaPascal (MPa). Imagine an aluminum alloy such as AA 6061 widely used in aircraft and cars with a tensile strength of only 186 MPa at the weld. In addition, welds after heat treatment will be able to increase tensile strength up to 551 MPa - this strength is comparable to steel.

Hard and light, the AA 7075 aluminum alloy can help vehicles save fuel as well as achieve greater energy efficiency with electric vehicles. This type of aluminum is also commonly used in the aircraft industry, where the body is made because the material is often paired with screws or rivets instead of welded joints. In addition, the aluminum alloy AA 7075 is also used in products that do not need to be paired, such as phone frames or carabiner hooks for mountaineers.

However, it is difficult to weld, especially welding technology in the car industry, which makes it not widely used."This technique is just a simple step but it allows high hardness aluminum alloys to be more widely used in mass-produced products such as cars or bicycles, they have regular parts. companies can reuse existing processes and equipment to bring this super hard aluminum alloy into their production lines, and their products will be lighter, more energy efficient. while being very durable, " said Xiaochun Li, a professor of production and an evaluator of the research at UCLA.

The team at UCLA is currently working with a bike maker to develop the first prototype bike with a frame made of this aluminum alloy. In addition, the method of dipping titanium particles into a welding rod will be applicable to welding other difficult-to-weld materials, such as metals and metal alloys.