I-Corps: Mechanistic solid-state welding model for materially efficient metal extrusions

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a sustainable manufacturing process that reduces the costs and time to market for light metal extrusions increasingly used in electric vehicles, machinery, and buildings. This development has the potential to double an extruder’s profit margin, make U.S. manufacturers more competitive, and ultimately save the global industry around $4 billion per year.

The proposed process may accelerate the adoption of efficient extrusion designs, leading to lighter vehicles and less pollution from transport. In addition, this process may make U.S. manufacturing more environmentally sustainable by reducing the scrap that is generated in conventional extrusion by 25-50%. If successful, this will increase the energy efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of U.S. industry.

Furthermore, the underlying science on solid-state welding developed for this technology may inform the development of other joining technologies to prevent undesirable welds from forming.

This I-Corps project is based on the development of mechanistic solid-state welding models, extrusion simulations, and algorithms for designing new light metal extrusion tools and billet shapes. This development may reduce the scrap generated in direct extrusion of aluminum and magnesium components. Currently, around one-quarter of the extruded material fails to make it to a final product and is scrapped within the manufacturing process.

One source of manufacturing scrap is the removal of the weak, solid-state weld that forms between consecutively extruded metal billets. The proposed technology controls the geometry of the final transverse weld and the deformation conditions across the evolving interface as it passes through the extrusion die. This in turn determines the interface oxide fragmentation, normal and shear contact stresses at the interface, and subsequently the weld strength.

This technology is designed to shorten the weld (reducing the quantity of the profile that must be removed) and increase the weld’s strength (negating the need to remove the weld in many non-critical applications). Early physical trials and simulations on aluminum billets indicate that the new technology may reduce the generation of extrusion scrap by at least 25%.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.