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By F J. Pearce

The Steel Company of Canada, utilizing the S-L process, has produced partially and highly reduced pellets for use in the blast furnace. Experimental blast furnace tests, using reduced pellet burdens, have been carried out. The changes in production rate, fuel rate and general performance of both the S-L and the blast furnace processes are indicated. Introduction T HE ore burdens for a blast furnace may be improved in two ways: chemically, by concentrating the ore to a high degree of purity; and physically, by agglomerating or closely sizing the ore particles. Today, many b1ast furnaces are charged with closely sized agglomerates, some of which contain upwards of 66 per cent iron. The further improvement of these burdens by chemical concentration may, in many instances, be uneconomic due to the large losses of iron that occur during processing. Assuming that it would be possible to reject all of the gangue minerals, the maximum level of concentration of iron in the hematitic ores would be only about 70 per cent.

Jan 1, 1964

By Pierre Laliberté

Introduction ??Mine ventilation is a major consumer of power in underground mining, including air heating (winter) and air conditioning (deep mines). ??Any advances, including the development of low emission vehicles, that can improve underground air quality can reduce ventilation demand, and likewise reduce costs and energy consumption, including their associated greenhouse gas emissions.

Nov 1, 2011

By S. G. Coultis

Turner Valley is in the foothills of the Rocky mountains, at an altitude of 4,000 feet, and is 42 miles south west of Calgary. The present producing area is 8 miles long by 1 1/2 miles wide, while drilling is being carried on over an area of 10 miles by 2 miles . There are 32 wells producing, 26 wells drilling, and 17 wells shut down, making a total of 75 wells, which range in depth from 2,160 feet to 5,900 feet, varying according toa the well location on the anticline centre wells being shallower than those located on the flank. The first indication of possible production in this field was a gas seepage on the banks of Sheep river, in what is now the Royalite plant yard (Figure 1). Geologically, this seepage proved to be located on an anticline running through the valley in a southwesterly direction. The Calgary Petroleum Products Company was formed in 1912, and under the direction of Mr. A. W. Dingman, President, and associates, the first well was drilled. Production was obtained in this well. Gas was found in several horizons from 884 feet to 3,960 feet, and oil at 1,557, 2,718 and 3,839 feet. In May, 1914, oil was struck at a depth of 3,839 feet, this being a light straw-coloured oil of 60 gravity, which was blown spraying from the well accompanied by three to four million feet of gas. The latter contained some 200 grains of hydrogen sulphide per 100 cu. ft., giving it the disagreeable odour so well known in Turner Valley gas. This strike caused considerable excitement and started the famous 1914 boom, when some 400 oil companies were formed. The well referred to produced from two to five barrels of 60 gravity oil per day, and 4,000,000 cu. ft. of gas. The oil was used in the crude form in cars and trucks.

Jan 1, 1929

By I. M. M. W. R. Jones

"THE OBJECT of these notes is to initiate a discussion among the members of our Institution on the connotation of the term 'ore', and to arrive, if possible, at an acceptable definition of the term in the light of its current use by our leading mining engineers, metallurgists, •and geologists.The majority of •authors of well-known modern text-books on subjects dealing with mineral deposits define 'ore' in words which convey the meaning that it is an aggregate of minerals from which one or more metals can, under favourable conditions, be extracted profitably.Many eminent members of the Institution, and of mining and metallurgical institutions in other countries, consider that the term should not be restricted to metalliferous mineral •deposits but can also be applied correctly to certain non-metallic deposits. They believe that the growth, during the twentieth century, in the industrial importance of non-metallic minerals, and the progress made in the mining and the milling of deposits containing such minerals by methods similar to those used for metalliferous mineral deposits, no longer justify the academic restriction of the term to deposits worked for their metal content only."

Jan 1, 1954

By E. C. W. Perryman

BEFORE describing the methods used for fabricating uranium into various shapes and sizes it is necessary to illustrate briefly the unusual conditions under which uranium has to operate when used as a fuel element in a reactor. During reactor operation, for every fission that occurs two atoms of intensely radioactive fission products are produced together with two or three neutrons. The neutrons that are ejected possess several m.e.v. of energy and when one of them strikes an atomic nucleus, that atom acquires up to 105 e.v. of kinetic energy. This is large enough to displace the atom from its lattice position and send it shooting through the crystal, displacing other atoms out of their lattice positions. The net result is that a large number of vacancies and interstitial atoms are formed within the crystal lattice which sometimes have profound effects on the physical and mechanical properties of the material in question.

Jan 1, 1957

By Charles G. Kemsley

IN January, 1939, Dome Mines, Limited, purchased a few bars of an alloy drill-steel for the purpose of testing its fatigue resisting qualities as compared with those of a straight carbon-steel then in general use at the mine. A steel of the following analysis was selected: Carbon 1.00% Sulphur 0.022 Chromium 1.26 Silicon 0.17% Phosphorus 0.028 Vanadium 0.1 Manganese 0.32% Molybdenum 0.30 This steel has a tensile strength of 180,000 lb. per square inch and a Brinell hardness of 380, as compared with a tensile strength of 114,000 lb. per square inch and a Brinell hardness of 230 for the standard carbon drill steels, in the as rolled' condition. The result of this test showed that about five times as many runs could be obtained from the alloy steel before failure from fatigue. It was therefore decided to replace gradually the one-inch quarter-octagon carbon steel, then in use, with seven-eighths quarter-octagon alloy steel. In January, 1940, six machines was placed on the seven-eighths steel and this was gradually increased until now (March 15th, 1941) fifty per cent of the steel being used is alloy steel. An O'Donovan furnace is used at the Dome for heat-treating their carbon drill-steel. In this furnace, a magnet withdraws the steel when the critical temperature has been reached, and the operator then places the steel in the quenching tank. Not being able to use this furnace for the alloy steel, the management felt that some means should be developed to determine the quenching temperature without depending upon the operator's judgment of the correct 'colour'. With the assistance of the Canadian General Electric Company, a radiation-type vacuum thermocouple pyrometer was adapted to this purpose, with excellent results; in fact, with this instrument no previous experience in hardening is necessary and results are remarkably uniform.

Jan 1, 1941

By M. K. Jain, Z. T. Xu, M. Bruhis, V. Hegedekatte

"Strain rate and temperature dependent deformation conditions are present during elevated temperature forming of aluminum and other metallic materials. While many constitutive laws have been proposed to represent such deformation conditions, a closer investigation often reveals their limited applicability in terms of fit to the experimental data, and interpolation within and extrapolation outside of the range of experimental stress-strain curves. This is often because material-specific primary deformation mechanisms of temperature-dependent strain and strain rate hardening are poorly captured. In the present work, the Voce-Kocks constitutive model based on mechanics of dislocations storage and annihilation has been found to be suitable for many metallic materials. The model was modified to include the effect of temperature dependent shear modulus. The modified model is then employed to represent the experimental data obtained from uniaxial tensile tests on AA7075-O sheet at elevated temperatures and strain rates. Also, hot gas bulging tests were conducted to verify the applicability of this model. Further, finite element simulation of the hot gas bulge test was performed by incorporating the model as a user material subroutine. Good general agreement was observed between the experimental and FE model predicted results. Some sources of discrepancy in the prediction are also discussed.INTRODUCTION There has been much interest in light-weighting of automobiles from automotive related industries to reduce overall carbon footprint and increase energy efficiency of the vehicles. Aluminum alloys, and especially the medium-strength 5xxx and 6xxx series alloys, have been the primary focus in the last 3 decades to reach the above environmental goals (Huo, Hou, Zhang, & Zhang, 2016) whereas aerospace industry has traditionally focused on high strength 7xxx series aluminum (Al-Zn-Mg-Cu) alloys for structural components (Deng, Yin, & Huang, 2011). Recently, there has been much interest in high strength 7xxx series aluminum as a replacement for heavier steel automotive structural parts such as A-pillar, B-pillar, side impact beams etc. (Harrison & Luckey, 2014). This is both interesting and challenging since the above aluminum structural parts will need to not only meet impact safety standards but also possess sufficient formability for manufacturing such complex parts. Since the formability of high strength 7xxx series materials is quite poor at room temperature, much interest has focused on improving both formability and final part strength via high rate hot stamping, in-die quenching, and subsequent artificial ageing process steps (Kumar & Ross, 2016)."

Jan 1, 2018

By W. L. Stuewe

The Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation requires enormous quantities of bricks each year for its Sydney steel plant operations. Clay brick of all types are purchased, while silica brick is made in the Company's plant at Sydney. A description of this plant was given in a paper presented by H. B. Gillis and F. C. Morrison at the 1938 Annual General Meeting of the Institute. The rock used to make silica brick was for years obtained from a quarry at Leitches Creek, about eighteen miles from Sydney. Due to the gradual deterioration of this deposit, the Corporation was forced to look for other sources of supply. In 1945, the problem was presented to the Nova Scotia Department of Mines and, through the efforts of Dr. A. E. Cameron and Mr. J. P. Messervey, an examination was made of a silica-rock deposit some six miles northwest of Yarmouth, N.S. Preliminary samples proved satisfactory, and arrangements were made with the Department of Mines to ship to the steel plant at Sydney a fifty-ton car load for the purpose of further testing. Brick made from this sample shipment stood up very well in the furnaces. At the same time, two hundred and fifty tons of silica rock from a deposit at Lac Bouchette, Que., were purchased from the Industrial Silica Corporation, and brick made from this rock also was found suitable for our requirements. Comparative transportation costs, however, led to a decision to open the Yarmouth deposit. The silica rock, or quartzite, of this deposit outcrops at Chegoggin point along what is known as the 'Pembroke shore', a northerly trending section of the coast-line at the extreme southwest of the Province, in Yarmouth county. The country here is fairly flat, with elevation averaging about twenty feet above high tide, and is for the most part mantled by a growth of brush and some scrub trees, chiefly small fir. Bed-rock is generally concealed beneath three to four feet of clayey soil, but scattered outcrops of the quartzite indicated that a band of this rock, some 260 feet wide, extended inland in a northeasterly direction from Chegoggin point at least to Utleys lake, a distance of about three miles.

Jan 1, 1947

By Y. Okita

The Goro Nickel Process, developed over a ten-year period, uses a number of novel processing steps and treats two ore types, limonite and saprolite, together. Nickel and cobalt are solubilized using a 270°C pressure acid leach in sulphuric acid, which rejects the bulk of the Fe into the leach residue as hematite particles. The leach liquor, after CCD, is aerated to oxidize any ferrous iron to the ferric form and is neutralized with limestone to precipitate iron as hydroxides together with gypsum from the neutralization of the free acid. Further neutralization with lime, together with steps to remove suspended solids, reduces the iron to trace concentrations. Nickel and cobalt are directly recovered from the low-iron leach solution by primary solvent extraction using Cyanex 301® (SXl) in a high-strength hydrochloric acid solution. Nickel is subsequently separated from cobalt in a secondary solvent extraction circuit using tri-isooctylamine. A granular nickel oxide is made by pyrohydrolysis, and this allows the recycling of hydrochloric acid to SXl. The process is currently being commercialized to produce approximately 60,000 t/y of nickel as nickel oxide granules and approximately 5,400 t/y of cobalt as cobalt carbonate. This paper describes the process development to control the Fe concentration in the SX1 feed solution.

Jan 1, 2006

By W. D. Freeborn

Slim-hole drilling and completion techniques were first used in the Cynthia area of the Pembina field, Alberta, by the Texaco Exploration Company in the summer of 1957. Prior to that time, eighty-eight wells had been drilled and completed in this area in a conventional manner. Subsequent to the initial four-well evaluation programme, twenty-one additional wells have been drilled using slim-hole techniques. No difficulty was encountered in the drilling and completion of slim-hole wells, or in obtaining production from them. A comparison of drilling and completion economics and practices has been made for slim-hole and conventionally completed wells. Penetration rates for both bit sizes (614 in. and 9 in.) were relatively equal. The shorter life of the smaller bits required the use of 15 per cent more bits per well, but the total trip time to change bits was similar for both hole sizes because of the higher hoisting speeds possible with the lighter drilling strings used in the slim holes and better hole conditions. Completion costs of the slim holes were reduced by 37 per cent as compared to the costs of conventional-type completions. This was made possible through the use of smaller well equipment, the elimination of tubing, and a reduction in rig time for completion operations.

Jan 1, 1958

By Tapiwa Chenje, Victor Olivas, Peter Radziszewski

"Ore breakage and grinding media wear have always been considered and determined separately in laboratory tests. However the two processes are linked with the ore broken down in any comminution device being responsible for the majority of the steel wear experienced. The Comminution Dynamics Laboratory (CDLab) successfully developed a test methodology that can more accurately predict grinding media wear in tumbling mills than the Bond Abrasion test. This paper looks at the possible application of the abrasive wear methodology to determine breakage parameters of the same ore used in the abrasion test. Results indicate that breakage parameters comparable to t10 can be determined using the Steel Wheel Abrasion Test (SWAT), while using significantly less ore than standard breakage tests.BACKGROUNDThe Rubber Wheel Abrasion Test (RWAT) is an internationally accepted and widely used method for determining the abrasion wear behavior of materials. The abrasion wheel test was developed to primarily utilize a steel wheel (Brinell, 1921). Haworth (1949) criticized using of the steel wheel by arguing that increasing the contact area size in the steel wheel test causes a change in the wear rate with time. He suggested that the use of a rubber wheel instead eliminates this problem, leading to the adoption of the RWAT which was standardized in ASTM G65 (2004).Radziszewski (2002), however, found that the use of the Steel Wheel Abrasion Test (SWAT) was more applicable for wear testing in the mining industry for two critical reasons. Firstly, the major cause of wear in a ball mill, the most frequently used comminution device, is ball-ore-ball contact and also ball-ore-liner which both are metal-ore-metal contact. Therefore, using the steel wheel has the advantage of providing a similar abrasive environment to the one that takes place in a real ball mill. Secondly, the SWAT creates the potential of running experiments at much higher force regimes that are closer to what happens in actual mills, unlike the RWAT which is a low stress test."

Jan 1, 2011

By G. P. Gu

The in-service 90/10 cupro-nickel tubes in a water-chiller system suffered from severe corrosion damage during their relatively short service life causing unexpected down time. In addition to downtime, the environmental risk associated with losing refrigerant was also a concern that initiated this investigation, Microstructural investigation using SEM and electron microprobe indicated that pitting corrosion had resulted in local nickel depletion, During the corrosion process, copper appeared to have re-deposited around the corrosion pits accelerating the local corrosion.

Jan 1, 2005

By V. Fiedler, H. Lachmund, R. Bruckhaus

"After producing some 50 million tonnes of crude steel the two BOF vessels at Dillinger Hüitte steel plant had to be replaced in 2000/01 due to large deformations. The new vessel design was optimised after a number of theoretical evaluations.Refractory investigations were carried out as well as temperature measurements of the shell to provide a basis for selecting a suitable steel grade. This was found in a DH-GTS development - P420M HT - with high strength at elevated temperatures and excellent weldability and made it also possible to build the vessel without any cooling system.After putting the first vessel into operation the metallurgical results showed no remarkable improvement compared to the old vessel, and were therefore not satisfying. With the help of cold model investigations the arrangement of the tuyeres was modified to improve the flow conditions and the interactions between oxygen jet and the heterogeneous plume of the bottom stirring gas. Further optimisations were obtained by a variation of lance tips and a newly developed lime addition model."

Jan 1, 2004

By Chia-Chi Chiu, Meng-Chia Weng, Tsan-Hwei Huang

"This paper proposes a biconcave shape bond model for the distinct element method (DEM) to simulate cementation between two circular particles in geomaterials. Rather than an original parallel bond model between particles, the proposed model adopts the more realistic shape of cementation and considers the elastic response of cementation under external loading. The stress field and force-displacement relationship of the biconcave shape bond is based on Dvorkin’s theory, and three modifications are adopted: (1) A superposition method is applied to improve the correctness and symmetry of the stress field, and it also provides a method of addressing the status when both connected particles rotate; (2) To simplify the input parameters, the tangential movement is replaced by the normal deformation and rotation between particles; (3) To accelerate the calculations, variables are extracted in analytical procedures, which provide an efficient method for applying the bond model with only one matrix inversion. With these three modifications, the new biconcave shape bond model is created.To assess the validity of the proposed model, this study compared the elastic deformation in a single bond with an elastic analysis performed using the finite element method (FEM). After verification of the proposed model, a series of sensitivity analyses was performed to explore the effect of bond shape and the differences from the parallel bond model. For a single bond, the results showed that a biconcave model can represent the mechanical behavior of a biconcave shape bond and is effective with different bond shapes. The stress fields calculated by the biconcave model were more similar to the FEM results than those obtained using Dvorkin’s theory. The width and thickness of a bond have a considerable effect on its stiffness, and the variation of thickness decreases with the width of the bond. In addition, the required parameters can be acquired directly from real bond material rather than using the back analysis procedure for parameters.The biconcave model was further implemented in DEM software Particle Flow Code 2 Dimension to certify its applicability in geotechnical engineering. Using this model, a series of uniaxial compression test simulations was performed to analyze the macroelastic responses of specimens. The results showed that the macrotangential elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio had a regular tendency, and they agreed with the stiffness variation in a microbond. This finding can assist in determining correlations between microand macroproperties and provides an innovative method for simulating the behavior of cemented granular material."

Jan 1, 2015

By F. Rosenblum, P. Spira

"Self-heating of broken sulphide ore or waste rock underground can lead to ignition and cause serious problems in a mine operation. An extensive study has demonstrated that it is caused by oxidation of certain species of pyrrhotite. Self-heating was found to take place in two stages, first progressing from ambient temperature to 1000C with exothermic formation of elemental sulphur in the presence of moisture and oxygen, and proceeding to a second stage in which the sulphur oxidizes to SO2. Ignition may eventually follow. An apparatus was developed to assess the propensity of sulphide rock to self-heating and the potential for hazardous behaviour. The effect of temperature, time, rock size, and surface treatment with chemicals is presented. On the basis of these results, possible approaches for preventing a runaway reaction are suggested for further investigation.IntroductionThe oxidation of sulphide ore, waste rock or tailings backfill, which may cause hazardous conditions underground through heating, oxygen depletion and, in some cases, fire, is well documented (Farnsworth, 1977; Ninteman, 1978; Rosenblum et al., 1982; Reimers, 1987). The self-heating mechanism, nevertheless, has not been satisfactorily explained. The onset of heating from ambient temperature, in particular, has not drawn the attention of researchers. In the course of a previous study (Rosenblum et al., 1982) aimed at finding a method to assess the hazard from using sulphide tailings as backfill, the authors developed an apparatus to measure self-heating rate under controlled, near ambient conditions. This has since provided decisive information in backfill investigations in the Noranda Group.The test methodology devised for tailings failed to predict self-heating in a broken waste rock known to be active. Upon repeated testing, however, a freshly crushed sample began to exhibit appreciable heating and oxygen uptake (Fig. I). After 14 tests, the self-heating rate reached a plateau of about 4O°C/h and then fell progressively to < 5°C/h after 30 tests. It was hypothesized that weathering in the presence of moisture and oxygen during testing had caused the onset of self-heating. Active tailings, on the other hand, are exposed to natural surface oxidation and need not be weathered to show heating. Based on this finding, a new apparatus was developed capable of simultaneously weathering a sample of rock and monitoring its self-heating behaviour."

Jan 1, 1995

By E. B. Spice

"IntroductionExperience at Eldorado has been gained with a variety of mill feeds. That is, the actual mode of occurrence of the pitchblende varies to such an extent that gravity concentration has at times been decidedly unattractive and at others highly successful. Because of this, the type of ore necessary for economic recovery of pitchblende have become well known. Also, those types which do not lend themselves to gravity concentration have become familiar. In general, it may be said that when the pitchblende occurs free, to a large extent, from sulphides or arsenides of high specific gravity, and when the bulk of the pitchblende is localized rather than disseminated, excellent recoveries, high ratios of concentration, and good grades of concentrates , will result from proper gravity concentration. On the other hand, if the ore contains pitchblende intimately or otherwise mixed with large quantities of arsenides or sulphides, or if the pitchblende is finely disseminated, gravity concentration alone will yield high recoveries only at the expense of very low-grade concentrates and low ratios of concentration.According to Taggart, the ease with which gravity separation may be effected is determined by the value of the following ratio: []It is stated that when the ratio is above 1.75, gravity separation can be expected to be easy. Thus with pure U308 (S.G. over 9) and gangue consisting chiefly of siliceous material, the process can he expected to be entirely successful even when carried on at very fine sizes. Unfortunately, the term pitchblende covers a great diversity of material. Although some of the mineral occurs pure enough to have a specific gravity of about 7, the average is much lower than this and is probably well under 5. Some of the pitchblende particles have a specific gravity so low that gravity concentration fails completely. It may also be said that no degree of grinding will produce free pitchblende of sufficient density from such particles. This, then, represents the most important limitation to the application of gravity separation to pitchblende ores."

Jan 1, 1950

By J. E. Udd

"In early 2000, CANMET-MMSL was engaged by the Ontario Ministry of Labour (OMOL) to conduct an international study of the practices, in several key mining jurisdictions, of determining the criteria that are used to decide when the wire ropes used in mine hoisting are to be retired from service. Subsequently, the author visited key officials and institutions in Canada, the United States, the Republic of South Africa, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Poland. Material from the Australian province of New South Wales and Hungary was also included.The report that resulted included, among other sections: (1) the history of wire ropes and trends in manufacturing technology; (2) a review of mine hoisting practices; (3) the requirements regarding safety factors; (4) a review of the various operations and their potential future development; (5) the criteria for rope replacement; (6) potential future developments that could take place in both hoisting and rope inspection practices in Canada; and (7) recommendations.Subsequently, the report was issued by OMOL, and as a CD-ROM by CANMETMMSL. In this paper the author presents the key findings and the recommendations made in the study."

Jan 1, 2004

By John B. Riddell

"AN EXCELLENT review of the status of applied geochemistry was given by Warren (1959) at last year's General Meeting of the C.I.M. The purpose of this paper is to present recent developments and trends. Several important books were announced during 1958: Ginzburg, I. I. Principles of geo-chemical prospecting. (In process of translation from the Russian by V. Sokoloff).Vinogradov, A. P. The geochemistry of rare and zvidely scattered chemical elements in soils. Consultants Bureau, N.Y. Korzhinskii, D. S. Physicochemical basis of the analysis of the paragenesis of minerals. Consultants Bureau, N.Y.In addition to these translations Mason's Geochemistry' has been revised, and Hawkes and Webb (personal communication) are publishing a book on geochemical exploration. A Symposium on Geochemistry was head in Paris in July, 1957, in conjunction with the XVIth International Congress of Pure and Al-lied Geochemistry. The abstracts of the papers presented at this Symposium were published in Geochimica et Cosmocl1imica Acta, 1958, Vol. 14, pp. 150-167."

Jan 1, 1960

The Rabbit Lake In-Pit Tailings Management Facility contains frozen layers of tailings due to subaerial deposition during the coldest periods of winter. Thawing is required to ensure full consolidation of the tailings and to regain disposal space presently occupied by ice. Electric resistance heating has been used to heat soil for bitumen extraction and remediation of volatile contaminants. A preliminary evaluation of the application of electric resistance heating to thaw about 0.3 cubic metres of frozen tailings was conducted using tailings frozen at about -2 oC. Visible thawing of the tailings mass was observed after 25 hours, demonstrating the feasibility of this approach.

Aug 1, 2010

By S. G. Luckey, N. R. Harrison, F. Nadeau, U. Brüx

"The adoption of tailored-rolled or tailor-welded blanks (i.e. TRB/TWB) in the automotive industry has been known to offer great potential for the optimization of weight, function, cost and complexity. Vehicle light weighting can further be achieved by using high strength aluminum alloys like the 7xxx-series. 7xxx-series alloys are capable of delivering specific strengths equal to or greater than high strength steels. However, room temperature formability of this aluminum class is limited, so one approach to forming 7xxx-series alloys is by hot stamping. Hot stamping utilizes an elevated temperature blank and the high pressure stamping contact of the forming die to simultaneously quench and form the sheet. This paper explores the initial feasibility of tailored thickness material for body-in-white applications when processed under hot stamping conditions.INTRODUCTION Steel tailor-rolled blanks (TRB) or tailor-welded blanks (TWB) have been used within the automotive industry as a method of reducing weight, expanding material utilization, and decreasing overall part/assembly cost (Ganeasan et al., 2015; Merklein et al., 2014; Hirt et al., 2005; Kridli et al., 2000). The production of such tailored thickness materials has resulted in over $2.5 billion (2016) in combined industry sales (Mubea, 2018). As automakers begin to adopt the manufacturing practices traditionally reserved for steel such as tailor rolling/welding with greater enthusiasm for vehicle light weighting, there exist an opportunity to expand the material database to extend beyond the traditional aluminum alloys found in current production. High strength aluminum alloys, i.e. 7xxx-series, are ideal for structural automotive applications due to their high specific strength; however, they have limited room temperature formability. Hot stamping, another manufacturing practice used by the steel industry, can be used to form these high strength materials. The combination of tailoring the thickness of a sheet material and hot stamping provides an opportunity for significant weight saving within an existing manufacturing footprint. This paper explores the potential and challenges of this approach when applied to structural body-in-white components. The methods for tailor rolling, tailor welding and hot stamping are described and applied to the production of a 7075 aluminum alloy B-pillar. The results are discussed in terms of feasibility and weight savings."

Jan 1, 2018