A new Tesla patent shows that the company has developed a new type of aluminum alloy, and the aluminum alloy has high strength and strong conductivity, and can be used for die-casting electric vehicle parts.
Earlier, there were reports that Tesla was working with SpaceX to develop new materials for the earth and space. The two companies created a materials engineering team to develop new and advanced materials for their products. The team was established in 2016. Tesla CEO Elon Musk hired Apple ’s alloy expert Charles Kuehmann and was also responsible for the materials engineering business of Tesla and its partner teams.
Now, we understand that the Tesla Materials team led by Kuehmann has developed a new material-a new aluminum alloy for die casting. A new Tesla patent application describes their current efforts to solve the aluminum alloy problem:
Commercially cast aluminum alloys can be divided into two categories, one with high strength and one with high conductivity.
For example, the yield strength of A356 aluminum alloy is greater than 175 MPa, and the electrical conductivity is about 40% IACS (International Annealed Copper Standard). In contrast, the conductivity of 100.1 aluminum alloy is greater than 48% IACS, but the yield strength is less than 50MPa. For the casting of electric vehicle components such as rotors or inverters, aluminum alloys need to have both high strength and high electrical conductivity. In addition, due to the need to manufacture parts through a casting process, forged alloys cannot be used. On the contrary, it is better to manufacture parts through casting processes such as low-pressure, high-speed metal injection or high-pressure die casting, and parts can be manufactured faster and more reliably. After casting, the alloy must be able to maintain its properties to meet the necessary application requirements. If the castability of the alloy is poor, it often results in hot tearing and filling problems that are visible to the naked eye, which usually reduces the mechanical properties and electrification properties of the terminal casting parts.
Therefore, Tesla is trying to create an alloy with high yield strength and high electrical conductivity while resisting hot tearing, so that it can be used for die-casting drive unit components. Compared with the above data, Tesla said that the yield strength of its new alloy can be increased from 90 MPa to 150 MPa, and the electrical conductivity can be increased from 40% IACS to 60% IACS.
Tesla also said that the new alloy can be used for die casting. In a certain use case, the alloy has proper fluidity to ensure that the alloy can wet the entire mold and form the mold correctly, so that the alloy can resist hot tearing when the casting is solidified and maintain the required yield strength.