The Chinese automobile company NIO has announced that its independently developed self-hardening new alloy “NIO-2” has completed comprehensive verification. NIO-2 is a heatless aluminum alloy material used for high-pressure die casting (HPDC). The new material has been developed and verified by the NIO Materials Research and Application Laboratory (MRA) team.
Before NIO-2 was applied to body-in-white production, the team jointly led design, manufacturing, industrialization, and other departments to conduct sample-level, component-level level and vehicle-level verification.
The alloy was used in the bodyshells of the Weilai ET9 and Ledo L60 and will be made available to the entire automotive industry.
The advent of the NIO-2 not only breaks the monopoly of C611 aluminum alloy in China’s large die-casting market but also invites significant economic, environmental, and intellectual benefits.
According to the firm, the new material is the industry’s first self-hardening aluminum alloy for large structural castings developed by a Chinese automotive brand. Its verification and application marks a major breakthrough for NIO in technological innovation and in its material research and development.
NIO expects to further improve the integration level of body die-cast parts, optimize production efficiency, and improve the quality of large-size die-cast parts, through the new alloy. It also hopes to significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions in the manufacturing process via NIO-2.
NIO’s innovative milestone received strong support from partners such as the alloy manufacturer Shuai Yichi and HPDC firms Wencan and Huihan. NIO said that the union of these partners will further accelerate NIO’s pace of technological innovation and industrial upgrading.
Source: www.yzweekly.com
