Sustainability by Design – Lightweighting of an Advanced Casting Part with a New Design Method

Abstract

Within the publicly funded research project “InDruTec-E - Leadership in innovation for high pressure die casting technologies for electro mobility”, DLR optimized a complex casting part and developed a improved design methodology, leading to significant lightweight potential. Designers are often challenged with highly stressed components that can lead them to optimize their designs through subsequent operations such as topology or sizing optimization. The technical limitation of secondary and tertiary optimization is the inability of the optimization tools to change the fundamental design given the constraints. Instead, these tools adhere to the design principle adopted and build on top of it. To provide a more innovative and capable approach, DLR has intensively studied the fundamental design rules through abstracting generic design profiles that represent components in the die-casting industries. In this study, the aim is to provide a first-stage design load-specific approach that will improve the design quality, utilize the full extent of the applied material, and distribute the loads more efficiently. Stress analysis was conducted on the generic profiles and results exhibit improved load transmission in bending and lateral load cases. The methodology prioritizes lightweighting as its main goal, however, results also show consequent benefits in durability and manufacturing of the component, all which contribute largely to its sustainability. Magnesium is particularly attractive as the lightweighting potential multiplies during the use phase. The presentation aims to interrogate the common practices in die-casting and instead puts forth a more sustainable approach to the design of die-casting components.