The project:

As different as people are, so diverse is the range of goods on offer in today's global consumer society. In the automotive industry, there are not only various car manufacturers, but each producer maintains several brands with many models, of which in turn many different types are offered. Individual components often differ only minimally.

Many components of a vehicle, especially engine and chassis, are metal castings. The production of casting molds and the casting processes themselves are complex procedures that only pay off through series production.

Representatives from seven companies (Fraunhofer IWU, Fraunhofer IWS, BOHAI TRIMET Automotive Holding GmbH, EDAG Engineering GmbH, Oerlikon AM Europe GmbH, Audi AG and ZF Friedrichshafen AG) have started the AGENT-3D_CastAutoGen project funded by the BMBF to find out in a first step how a standard casting can be modified for different requirements by use of additive manufacturing.

The test object for Scenario 2, led by Fraunhofer IWS, was a 25 cm long casted bracket made of the aluminum casting alloy AlSi12Cu1(Fe) which needed additional stability and connecting elements. For this purpose, a supporting geometry made of AlSi1MgMn was applied through 3D printing (Laser Metal Deposition - LMD). Computer tomography was able to provide clarifying insights.

Two assumptions were made:

• The casting was outgassing into the contact area, which could be reduced by a higher vacuum during the die casting process.
• The angle of the LMD powder nozzle was not optimal for accessibility reasons.

With only three 12-minute CT scans, the manufacturing process of this hybrid bracket could be developed cost-efficiently with a significant increase in quality.