Robust mechanical joining of cast aluminium components (RobuCap)

Purpose and goal

The goal of the project is to create stable, reliable and verified concepts for mechanical joining processes of die-cast aluminium components. This will improve and enable an increased usage of cast aluminium materials. The project will thereby contribute to increasing circular material flow, enabling of circular manufacturing, prolonged lifetime of products and parts, and create the premises for robust production with cast aluminium parts. The project aims to facilitate the assembly and introduction of these materials and improve quality of joining of these materials.

Expected effects and result

The collaboration within this project will distribute and implement the created knowledge along the whole supply chain and will lead to better understanding for design and production of cast parts as well as strengthen the knowledge towards cast materials which provide substantially different requirements for joining. Being able to join low ductile alloys will increase the usage of recycled aluminium alloys in future and increase circularity in the material usage for structural components in car manufacturing. For mega castings this increased circularity will be substantial.

Planned approach and implementation

The duration of the project is 29 months. The project is organized in 5 work packages. Experimental studies of established joining methods like self-pierce riveting (SPR), clinching and flow drill fastening (FDF) will be conducted and accompanied by comprehensive material characterization, exploration of numerical methods, and investigations on disassembly possibilities. The project results will be disseminated within the project group and at national and international conferences.