Innovation, Development and Implementation of the HFQ® Process

The material most immediately available for further light weighting body and chassis structures of mass produced automobiles is aluminium alloy and currently this is being used in relatively small quantities, mainly for premium cars. The main barrier to its wider use is its lower room temperature formability compared with that of deep drawing steel and, if to alleviate this, hot/warm forming is attempted, the low resulting mechanical properties. To overcome these drawbacks, the 'Hot Forming and cold die Quenching', HFQ (R) process was conceived and subsequent research and development has resulted in a technology that has been proven to enable considerable light weighting of chassis and body structures to be achieved, with productivity and cost acceptable for mass production. This paper is a description of the mechanics of the HFQ (R) process which provides a means for manufacturing components from sheet aluminium alloy with equivalent shape complexity and significantly lighter weight than of those from steel. The use of a suitable temperature and forming speed to enhance formability and means for obtaining high mechanical properties from heat treatable alloys are described. A number of components designed for both road and air production vehicles have been made using HFQ (R) and some of these are presented together with estimates of production costs.