Introduction from the LATEST2 Management Team
The recent White Paper has recommended that the UK's CO2 emission targets should be reduced from 80% to 20% of current levels by the year 2050 to avoid the serious implications of global warming and reduce our economically unsustainable dependence on fossil fuels.
As a consequence of these directives, automotive manufacturers will be required to comply with a 130 CO2 g/km limit in the near future and this will soon fall to 80 g/km. Aerospace and automotive manufacturing are critical to the UK economy, with a turnover of about £30 billion and employing some 600,000 workers directly and within the supply chain. A sustained effort is thus required in these sectors to maintain the UK’s global competitiveness in the move towards a low carbon economy, particularly in the context of the need to secure the future expansion of the manufacturing base following the current economic downturn, as has been recognised by a recent initiative from the TSB in low carbon vehicles.
In order to reach emission reduction targets, applications for light alloys within the transport sector are projected to double in the next decade. However, the properties and cost of current materials, and the associated manufacturing processes, are already inhibiting progress in weight reduction. In addition, the introduction of new renewable technologies, for example hydrogen and biofuels, as well as hybrid and electric drive trains, will present further challenges. Recent studies by European Automotive Manufacturers have shown that polymer composites are too expensive for structural applications in large volume vehicle production. First generation Al and Mg body structures already in production are cheaper and give similar weight savings (~ 40%) and life cycle CO2 footprint to composite designs, but only if a high level of recycling is achieved. However, further weight savings will only be possible, at an economically acceptable level, by the introduction of stronger higher performance alloys in more efficient designs that combine the best attributes of more advanced Al and Mg alloys with composites, laminates, and cheaper steel products in multi-material structures.
Furthermore, advanced computer-based design tools are now playing an increasing role in industry and allow, as never before, the optimisation of component architectures for increased mass efficiency. This technology alone could dramatically reduce component weight if the challenges of manufacturing such complex components can be overcome. For example, Airbus has shown that an optimised design solution for Ti, containing multiple internal webs, can save nearly 40% of the mass of a forged monolithic component, if the equivalent properties could be achieved. In the aerospace sector, new higher performance Ti and Al alloys will be substituted into existing airframe designs to achieve incremental weight savings for many years to come. More importantly, they will play a key role in future multi-material designs, where they will be increasingly required to work with composites and to be manufactured into more efficient, mass optimised, component designs, as well as in multi-material and graded structures.
This presents challenges to the materials community, with the following critical issues requiring urgent address:
- How do we make more complex shapes in low formability materials, while achieving the required internal microstructure, texture, surface finish and, hence, in-service and cosmetic properties?
- How do we join different materials, such as aluminium and magnesium, with composites, laminates, and steel to produce more mass efficient cost-effective designs?
- How do we protect such multi-material structures and their interfaces from environmental degradation?
The University of Manchester has one of the premier Light Alloys research Groups. The LATEST2 Programme Grant funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) provides the prime focus for Manchester’s capability
The investment in the LATEST2 Programme Grant is expected to exceed £9.0 million over the next 5.5 years, including an initial investment of £5.6 from the EPSRC supplemented by a £1.0 million investment from The University of Manchester and pledged leveraged funding from our industrial and academic partners.
The Programme is aimed at overcoming the aforementioned challenges facing the materials community to achieve reductions in the environmental impact of transport by facilitating a step change in high-performance light alloy design solutions in the sector. Success will have direct benefits to the quality of life and contribute to the achievement of UK emissions targets. The outcomes of the Programme are thus in line with the Governments grand challenge in energy and the move towards a low carbon economy.
Importantly, the programme is carefully tailored to the needs of industry, following extensive consultation, and will deliver the supporting underpinning research needed to maintain global competitiveness in the realignment of the transport manufacturing sector to ever lower emissions.
The Programme will also be pivotal in maintaining the knowledge base, and throughput of trained personnel needed by UK manufacturing in this critical area. It is noted that larger scale investments are being made in Japan, the US and Europe in similar research programmes.