Mechanical and Corrosion Testing of High Recycled Content Aluminum Automotive Body Sheet Alloys
摘要
Increasing recycled content reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissionsEmissions from aluminum productionAluminum production, but recyclingRecycling end-of-life vehicle (ELV) scrap into high-value automotiveAutomotive body sheet (ABS) is challenging due to high contaminant levels in the scrap and the low tolerance to such contaminants in the ABS alloys. Four high recycled content (HRC) alloys are developed, based on compositions of existing baseline aluminumAluminum 5xxx (high and low magnesium) and 6xxx (high and low copperCopper) ABS alloys, but with increased tolerance to the contaminants found in the ELV scrap. This article focuses on mechanical and corrosion testing of the HRC alloys using tensile and VDA bendability tests, and ASTM G67 and ISO11846-B intergranular corrosion (IGC) tests. The HRC alloys showed increased ultimate tensile and yield strengths compared to baseline alloys, similar ductility, but reduced bendability. The 5xxx HRC alloys were classified as intergranular corrosion resistant, and the 6xxx HRC alloys exhibited similar intergranular corrosionIndustrial decarbonization as theCircular economy baseline alloy meeting the automotiveAutomotive OEM’s specifications.