Microstructural characterization of aluminum alloys used in automotive body parts

To meet light-weighting and safety target of automotive vehicles, different aluminum alloys are used in various body parts. Apart from conventional manufacturing process of gravity die casting (GDC), advanced manufacturing process such as low pressure die casting (LPDC), high pressure die casting (HPDC) and extrusion processes are also used to form complex automotive body parts. Steel parts are majorly used in automotive applications across world. However, steel has limitations with respect to light-weighting. To achieve light-weighting, now a days, there is trend to use these complex aluminum parts in automotive industry to replace steel and integrate multiple parts into single part. Aluminum has emerges as great potential for light-weighting and reducing complexity of handling multiple parts at automotive plant. Aluminum provide additional benefits of high durability and crash performance. There is challenge to identify suitable etchant for microstructural characterization of aluminum alloy, that can be made through various manufacturing process. This paper discusses aluminum alloy microstructural characterization, suitable etchant, identification of alloy and its manufacturing process.