The fuel saving is recently required because the gas emission must be reduced concerning the issue of global warming. On the other hand, the requirements of safety and comfort functions cause automobile weight to be increased. The use of aluminum alloys for automobile parts has increased since COP3 (adoption of Kyoto Protocol) in 1997, especially in Europe. Aluminum alloys have already been put into practice for automobile parts in power trains and beat exchangers considerably. Nowadays they are much applied for body panels and chassis parts because of exact weight saving of automobile. In addition the aluminum parts are made of sheets, extrusion profiles and castings. The forming and joining technologies of aluminum alloy are also improved in order to put into practice for aluminum automobile body. In this paper, the latest application of aluminum alloys for autobodies in Japan and abroad, and recent technologies; new alloy sheets, superplastic forming, joining, finite element analysis, are reviewed.
展开▼
