Leading Ideal to overcome casting aluminum "oxidation phenomenon" industry problems: all models have been applied

      Recently, led by the ideal automobile automobile casting aluminum "oxidation phenomenon" innovative solution - new integrated passivation solution and process of die casting line, in the 2024 China Corrosion Resistance Technology Forum sponsored by the China Consumer Product Quality and Safety Promotion Association, the successful evaluation of automotive corrosion application scenarios typical cases, And it is the only case in the field of automobile corrosion prevention to receive this award.

       With the popularity of new energy vehicles, vehicle lightweight requirements are also increasing, die-cast aluminum alloy parts in the automotive industry has been widely used, however, in coastal areas, Meiyu season and more humid weather environment, the surface of automotive cast aluminum parts is easily oxidized, there will be a surface "oxidation phenomenon" situation.

       At present, the automotive industry is mostly tolerant of casting aluminum "oxidation phenomenon", and believes that white rust in die-cast aluminum alloy does not affect the function of parts, which is a normal phenomenon. Although it does not affect the function, it gives the user a poor impression. In the face of after-sales complaints, the industry has also responded with words such as "common market problems that do not affect vehicle performance".

      In the current industry, the mainstream anti-corrosion solution of cast aluminum parts is passivation treatment, but the traditional passivation process is carried out on the special passivation line body, cast aluminum parts after the completion of die casting, need to be transferred, and electric drive parts assembly accuracy requirements are high, in the process of transport is easy to cause collisions, will affect the dimensional tolerance of the parts, thus affecting the assembly.

      And the traditional passivation line body is more complex, involving multiple steps of cleaning before passivation, washing and drying after passivation, requiring the input of tooling, passivation tank and other equipment, so the passivation cost is high and environmental protection qualifications are required.

       In response to these issues, after internal research and many discussions with industry experts, Ideal Automotive concluded that integrating the passivation process into the die casting cleaning line was the best way to solve the problem. However, there are also the following difficulties: the traditional passivation potion contains heavy metal elements such as chromium, and the die casting manufacturers do not have the qualifications for the treatment of passivation wastewater, and the pH value of the traditional passivation potion is acidic, and the material of the die casting and the cleaning equipment of the die casting line are incompatible.

       In order to realize the integrated passivation process of the die-casting line, Ideal Automobile cooperated with the world's top solution suppliers to jointly develop a new environmentally friendly passivation solution. 

       In the process of research and development, after several rounds of potion formulation debugging, the successful use of environmentally friendly material zirconium instead of heavy metal chromium, by adding a new polymer, to make up for the lack of bonding force of zirconium interface, through the electron microscope observation, the surface of the passivated cast aluminum parts formed a dense passivated film.

      In addition, the pH value of the new solution is neutral, which not only avoids the corrosion of the steel material in the die casting, but also reduces the corrosion of the cleaning equipment, so that the passivation process is easy to integrate into the die casting line. Finally, the new environmental protection potion was tested with the pilot line, and the test results obtained fully met the requirements of the standards and successfully passed the verification.

       In the integrated passivation process, Ideal automobile coordinated to promote the production line upgrade of casting aluminum die-casting manufacturers, improved and optimized the existing cleaning equipment, and added the passivation solution to the final cleaning link of the die-casting line body to achieve the integration of the cleaning and passivation process.

       After precisely adjusting the concentration and time of passivation liquid, the surface color and passivation layer thickness of cast aluminum parts meet the relevant requirements, and meet the assembly and sealing standards.

      Wen De, head of the anti-corrosion business, said: "After more than a year of intense research and development and more than 20 times of debugging, Ideal Automobile has successfully developed an environmentally friendly aluminum alloy passivation potion and process. This technology has been tested for corrosion resistance and has successfully solved long-standing corrosion problems in the industry, and is now successfully applied to the exposed cast aluminum parts of the entire lineup of ideal vehicles."

Note: This news is reprinted in Drive House.