Lately it seems that ideas for Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI) and Carbidic Austempered Ductile Iron (CADIsm) are popping up all over. Forgings are expensive and you cannot beat holes in ‘em. Castings are lower in cost and many more features can be easily cast in. Add to that the fact that tooling for castings is far less expensive than forging tooling, and everybody now seems to have a way to make stuff in ADI or CADIsm.
ADI conversions are simple. All you need is good ductile iron and a properly facilitated and designed Austemper heat treatment and you’ve got a component that will run with the best steel forgings, castings and weldments…..at a competitive cost. CADIsm is a bit of a challenge because you have to get used to put thermally stable carbides in the casting, something that we have worked for DECADES to eliminate. But when you get it right it will run with 27% Chrome white iron and will not spall or chip like those fully carbidic irons.
Lately the crew at Joyworks has been collaborating with the technical sales folks from Applied Process (www.appliedprocess.com) to develop prototype parts for AP’s customers to demonstrate the cost effectiveness and durability of ADI and CADIsm components. It’s awfully hard for a customer to resist considering the conversion when you can put parts right on his or her desk. Ground engaging parts are of particular interest to many new customers as people are always looking for something that is better and/or less expensive than the competition. In addition, weight reduction on every front is in our future.
In the US, the Obama administration has recently backed a 56.2 miles/gallon Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) for 2025. Motor Trend Magazine (www.motortrend.com) recently quoted a study done by an organization right here in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, the Center for Automotive Research (www.cargroup.org). They calculated the effect of achieving the standard as an average price increase (in 2008 dollars) of $6,714 per vehicle. A little quick math tells me that if I now have a car that gets 20mpg and drive it 20,000 miles per year, and I replace it with a 56mpg vehicle I’ll have a 2.8 year payback against that $6,714: not great….but not horrible. However, if it’s a second vehicle and it’s only driven 10,000 miles per year the payback is a steep 5.6 years. I’m pretty certain that the folks in Washington don’t stay up late at night worrying about such things.
The Center for Automotive Research (CAR) further broke down the numbers to envision what a fleet of 56mpg vehicles might look like. First, there would be a significant mass reduction by using low density materials like magnesium, aluminum, carbon/carbon composites and plastics. Additionally, industry would turn to thin-walled/thin-sectioned versions of high-strength, materials like steel, ductile iron, ADI and compacted graphite iron. Even at a CAFE of 56mpg, plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles are only forecasted to make up about 20% of the market. Light-weight, diesel propelled vehicles will make up about 8% of the market. Light-weight Hybrid Electric vehicles with tricked-out gasoline engines will make up about 36% of that 2025 fleet. Finally, good ‘ol gasoline powered vehicles with significant mass reductions and tricks like stop/start technology (where the engine turns off at stoplights) will also make up about 36% of the market.
Now some would argue that the plug-ins and battery electric cars are actually “coal powered” since two thirds of our electricity comes (and will most likely continue to come) from coal and that CO2 is just coming out of a different pipe…..but I’m just the engineer, not a politician. That aside, it’s going to be a wild ride for producers supplying the car industry in the next 15 years as they will be expected to come up with every trick in the book to make this happen. Joyworks (www.joyworksstudio.com) and Applied Process Inc. (www.appliedprocess.com) will be happy to be on the forefront of the development tougher, stronger, lighter, quieter and more wear resistant components for these future vehicles. It sounds like fun to me……although I’ll miss the soothing burble and low rpm acceleration of a high-output V-8.