Nitriding steels remain the most popular materials for race (Courtesy of Arrow Precision)

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alloysOF Wayne Ward examinesREPUBLISHED theONLINE current state of the art and future prospects in metals technology for motorsports

he subject of metallic materials – their proper selection, of the two. This doesn’t just apply to durability (as judged by fatigue metallurgy and properties – alreadyBE fills countless textbooks, performance); equally we could consider corrosion resistance, friction, so it would be fruitless and impractical to try to ORcover these temperature resistance and so on. topics in any depth in this article or even in an entire issue Companies who make bespoke engines – particularly the few who ofT this magazine. What we can do though is give an appraisal of the make a large proportion of the parts themselves – need to know which present state of metals development and possible future developments, materials will best suit a given application if they are to produce a based on input from motorsportTO and metals industry experts. light, powerful, durable and economical engine. They also need a While anyone upgrading an existing production engine will need good knowledge of the function of the component to which they will at least some materials knowledge, it is the companies who supply apply their chosen material choice, as well as the critical quantity or bespoke race engines who need to be up to date not only on the quantities that affect the design. materialsPROPERTY but also their application and new developments in the For example, say we would like to make the lightest possible test technology. Although an improved PRINTmaterial specification can only piece that will withstand a 10,000 N tensile load. If we imagine that rarely make upNOT for some deficiency in the design or manufacture of we are limited to using steel, we need to choose a material with a particular part, it is also true that an improved specification will, the greatest tensile strength (assuming that every type has the same for example, offer the opportunityIN to make a part lighter for the same density). We may therefore find one with a tensile strength of 2500 2 durability, or more durable given the same mass, or a combination N/mm and we have our answer. t

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material for a given application. The materials suppliers take it that your knowledge of your application is good enough to make the correct material choice given the information they supply to you. It is a good idea to involve material suppliers at an early MEDIA.stage, not only to gauge what is available but also to listen to what knowledge they may have of similar applications. Without access to some complex FEA, and a method of validating the results, we have to make a lot of assumptions about what we require for a given part in terms of materials, and the knowledge of a good materials supplier or expert Fig. 1 – Norton was using magnesium for major engine components more than 50 years ago, and the material is now widely used in automotive engines POWER can be invaluable here. There are a few motorsport If we then find another material with a strength of 1500 N/mm2 companies who are rich enough to venture into the world of material strength but with half the density of steel, however, then we have development individually, but the rest of the industry is well served a better candidate. The critical quantity, or property in this case, is in that many of the materials we use are also used by the aerospace specific ultimate tensile strength – that is, ultimate tensile strength industry. It is mainly the aerospace industry, and its constant striving divided by density. We can take our pile of materials property books for improvement, that we have to thank for better materials being and do the calculations to see which suits this simple application.HIGH developed that suit our needs. However, most real-world applications are not so easy to work out. Take the case of a con rod. If we look at the stress field within Magnesium alloys a con rod, it is complex and consequently much of the rod is barely The regulation proscribing the use of magnesium alloys in Formula

stressed. We could optimise the rod, based on an even stress field One and NASCAR engines is puzzling. In the days when the flow of t (most sensibly by matching the fatigue strengthOF of the material) to arrive at a very light rod that would cause the engine to fail. REPUBLISHED The reason is that the form of a con rod is dictated ONLINE largely by a stiffness requirement, which is controlled by the geometry of the part and the elastic modulus of the material. If we are presented with a material that is 10% stronger and 3% more dense, butBE has an elastic modulus equal to the existing rod material, OR would it make sense to change? We need to know the volume of material limited by strength and compare this to the amount of material required to fulfil the stiffness function. If the whole TOlength of the rod beam was limited by strength in the given design, then it would make sense to change material in this case, but if the only material limited by strength is a small regionPROPERTY around the little-end oil drilling then the answer is that we should use the existingPRINT material. As can be seenNOT from this example, the issue of correct material choice depends only partly on knowledge of the best materials. Ashby’s book (1) Fig. 2 – Aluminium is commonly used for major structural engine castings, IN as seen here in this V10 endurance engine (Courtesy of Engine Developments) is an excellent reference on how to select the best

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and 10 mm deep, for the same mass we can use a beam of 50 mm wide and 15 mm deep in magnesium. The stiffness of the beam is proportional to the product of the modulus of elasticity and the moment of inertia of the section.

The modulus, E, of aluminium is 72 GPa and that of magnesium is 44 GPa. MEDIA. Doing the calculation for stiffness gives magnesium a 106% stiffness advantage in this example. If we were happy with the stiffness of the aluminium part, we could match the beam bending stiffness using a section depth of 11.78 mm, and the mass of the magnesium part would be 21% less than that of the equivalent aluminium part. This example shows that neither modulus, nor even specific modulus (modulus divided by density), represent a good way to select the best material here. Where there is no imperative for strength, as in an unstressed cover, magnesium offers an advantage over cast aluminium as it can be cast POWERin the same thickness, hence its widespread use for this purpose in roadcars. Such is the advantage it offers that BMW uses magnesium to cast cylinder blocks. There is no doubt though that magnesium has some disadvantages Fig. 3 – This forged race is made from ‘the old favourite’ 2618, or RR58. It remains the mainstay for race (Courtesy of Omega Pistons) compared to aluminium. It has poor corrosion behaviour, and low strength and stiffness, which is why people are likely to get money into the sport was even more limited than it is now, magnesium unsatisfactory results when simply trying to substitute aluminium with wasn’t beyond the wallet of even small engine manufacturers.HIGH The magnesium. However, if we take magnesium’s mechanical properties NASCAR engine regulations use the word ‘magnesium’ twice, on into account and design around them, it is an attractive material and both occasions stating, “Magnesium and other exotic materials will found success when used for structural castings such as sumps in not be permitted”. Frankly, magnesium is about as exotic as a slice before it was banned. of bread and is, as we will show, simply a sensible choice in certain There have been several attempts to use magnesium for more applications. OF highly stressed engine components, notably pistons. The fact is that, Magnesium has been commonplace in race engines for many in some respects, magnesium is not an ideal piston material. In terms decades and it has also been used quite widely in road-goingREPUBLISHED engines of physical properties for piston materials, high thermal conductivity for cars and motorcycles for more than 20 years now, even in ONLINEis considered important, and that of magnesium is much less than that reasonably low-budget vehicles. Fig. 1 shows a 1951 Norton model of aluminium. However, when people are looking to thermal-barrier 40M, which has magnesium crankcases. coatings on piston crowns, the low thermal conductivity of magnesium Magnesium has a valuable role to play in making a lightweight alloys for use as a piston material may no longer be the obstacle it was engine, which is important for roadcars becauseBE the supporting once considered to be. structure can therefore be made lighter – and a lighter car ORcan There are a number of high-strength wrought magnesium alloys that then have a smaller, lighter engine, giving better economy. Just as could be considered as candidates where aluminium components are motor racing must look to embrace technologies which roadcar currently used. manufacturers value, it should not outlaw materials which the car The use of magnesium can in some cases be limited by its corrosion manufacturers commonly use. TOSince 2006, BMW has cast production behaviour. It is the least noble of the commonly used engineering roadcar blocks for its six-cylinder 325 and 330 models from materials, but in recent years a number of new surface treatment magnesium, albeit with an aluminium alloy insert for the cylinder processes have been developed that have improved the corrosion surfaces and water cooling jacket. behaviour of components made from it. PROPERTYMagnesium is an attractive material mainly because of its low density. While it doesn’t have a particularlyPRINT high specific strength Aluminium alloys or specific stiffness,NOT the fact that for a given mass we can use more As a lightweight alloy, aluminium has found widespread use in material is an advantage because we can arrange the material into a automotive engines for decades, for the main castings of the engine, geometry that gives a stiff INstructure. cylinder liners, pistons, con rods, covers of various descriptions and

If we look at an aluminium beam in bending, say 50 mm wide many other ‘minor’ pieces. Fig. 2 shows a typical bespoke race engine t

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Fig. 4 – Con rods, pistons and compressor wheels are some of the components for which rapidly solidified alloys find application (Courtesy of RSP Technology)

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that uses aluminium for major castings. material which continues to be used for highly-stressed applications. Cast aluminium remains the most popular choice for engine castings Fig. 3 shows an RR58 forged piston. for road as well as race vehicles. There is a wide range of materials However, recently developed ‘conventional’ alloys, metal-matrix used for race castings, many of which are based around a chemistry composites and metallic-glass (see below) alloys aimed at piston involving 5-10% of silicon, often with additions of magnesium. LM25 manufacture could well see RR58 displaced for a small number of is a popular British specification, broadly equivalent toHIGH the US A356 applications in future. One property in many new materials that is composition. lacking compared to RR58 is elongation. In recent years alloys have been developed that have significantly While we don’t expect pistons to need much capacity for significant improved fatigue properties compared to the alloys mentioned above, plastic deformation, elongation does give some indication of how and despite some difficulties in the production of castings in these alloys ‘forgiving’ the material will be in hard-contact situations. Where (A201 being an example), race companies haveOF been looking at these a material has little ductility, any edge contact or loading must be lately. These alloys are based on chemical compositions using some carefully considered if failure is to be avoided. Where people simply expensive alloying elements, but the results are a truly significantREPUBLISHED step replace RR58 with a stronger material with lower elongation, they forward in fatigue behaviour compared to the status quo. New alloys, ONLINEoften get a nasty shock. However, with attention to detail in critical which have significantly improved casting characteristics combined with areas, these low-ductility materials can be made to work well for excellent fatigue and tensile properties have been developed. piston manufacture. Wrought aluminium continues to enjoy significant development, Research into the processing of aluminium has given us a lot of with high-strength alloys, high-stiffness alloysBE and low-density materials with striking mechanical properties. Metallic glasses, so alloys being of particular interest to those designing race enginesOR or called because of their amorphous structure, based on aluminium and components. For instance, stockholders can supply commercially manufactured using astonishingly high cooling rates – of the order of available grades of extruded aluminium alloys with an ultimate tensile a million degrees centigrade per second – have shown truly incredible strength greater than 700 MPa. results. One of the resulting alloys has a yield strength in excess of There has also been a lot of workTO on low-density, high-stiffness 700 MPa, another has a specific stiffness of 51.44 and several have alloys containing lithium. These can enjoy an increase in elastic improved high-temperature properties compared to the current best modulus compared to other aluminium alloys while having a lower conventional piston alloys, while also showing improved fatigue density and improved fatigue behaviour. For instance, the specific properties. Fig. 4 shows a number of products developed from rapidly modulusPROPERTY of 2014 alloy is 25.85 GPa/(g/cm 3). The equivalent figure for solidified aluminium alloys. 8090, an aluminium-lithium alloy isPRINT 30.31, which represents a 17% Metal-matrix composites based on aluminium offer an alternative increase. NOT route to very high levels of stiffness, and these currently find Piston alloys continue to attract a lot of attention, and there is a applications in a number of race series. Con rods and pistons are two steady stream of new materialsIN which try to knock the long-term major components of the engine for which these alloys are currently

favourites from their pedestal. RR58/2618 is an old specification of used; the valvetrain is another area. t

34 Fig. 6 – These machined steel NASCAR rockers have replaced aluminium in the search for stiffness and low inertia (Courtesy of Jesel)

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POWER A typical aluminium-based metal-matrix composite has a slightly aluminium for non-structural areas of the block. higher density (2-3% higher usually) than a typical aluminium alloy, Many NASCAR engine blocks are made from CGI, and it has but a 60% higher modulus, combined with improved wear resistance. found successful application in recent years for cylinder blocks in These materials are prohibited in a number of race series, notably high-output series production engines, notably from companies such Formula One, although they find use in a number of race formulae as Audi and Jaguar. There is also some anecdotal evidence to show with much lower budgets. that Suzuki experimented with CGI iron for its 500 cc V4 Grand Prix Aluminium beryllium has had a lot of coverage overHIGH the years and motorcycle engine during the later stages of the two-stroke era. is, technically speaking, a metal-matrix composite rather an alloy, CGI stands for Compacted Graphite Iron and its success lies in as beryllium isn’t soluble in aluminium. The alloys used in Formula its microstructure, in particular the form that the graphite within the One for pistons more than a decade ago are still manufactured and structure takes. The German name for the material is GGV, or Grau supplied to the aerospace industry, and are very popular for satellite Grus Vermikular (grey iron vermicular). Vermicular means to be like applications. OF a worm in form or movement, and this worm-like form refers to While these materials are banned in Formula One engines, they the graphite within the iron matrix. This structure and the method remain legal in many other race series. A typical aluminium-berylliumREPUBLISHED by which it is produced were discussed in an article in RET 42 in alloy has a density of just over 2 g/cm3 (a little higher than that of ONLINENovember 2009 (3). magnesium) and a modulus of 193 GPa (a little lower than that of The vermicular structure is produced by adding magnesium, and steel). The material has been used in piston pin applications, where it controlling the melt to ensure even dispersion of the magnesium was inserted in a steel sleeve that formed the contact surface. throughout is critical to the success of the material. Areas of the With their good fatigue strength and excellentBE thermal conductivity, casting lacking in magnesium will produce a standard ‘grey iron’ it is little wonder that aluminium-beryllium materials are popularOR structure which, compared to the desired CGI structure, is much where their use makes commercial sense. weaker.

Cast iron Steel With the advent of the ‘aluminiumTO engine’ – one whose blocks and Whether it be through the rules mandated by various series or by heads were manufactured from cast aluminium – cast iron became sensible choice, steel remains the best material for a number of something of an anachronism as far as materials technology was the most highly stressed engine components. It is certainly the concerned. With the emergence of CGI cast iron, however, there is a only sensible option for very highly stressed crankshafts (page 29), genuinePROPERTY alternative to aluminium for structural engine components. and remains popular for con rods, flywheels, gears and valvetrain CGI iron is not a new material, butPRINT its use for large structural engine components (Fig. 6). Indeed, for some applications, steel is replacing castings is a recentNOT development. Dieter van der Put discussed it in aluminium and titanium because of its better tribological behaviour a recent RET-Monitor article (2) when he looked at the advantages or to increase stiffness where space constraints limit the scope to add of the material and the possibilityIN for producing an optimised-mass more material. ‘composite’ block using CGI, where it makes sense to use it, and The development of steel materials continues apace, and in recent

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years there has been a trend whereby re-melted steels have been There have been two major steel development directions in recent used more commonly for applications where fatigue needs to be years – a concerted push toward improving the cleanliness of steels, considered. These re-melted steels (Fig. 7) are much ‘cleaner’ than the as with the re-melted grades, and the increasing popularity of powder standard types of steel, containing less of the elements that can lower metallurgy steels. the fatigue life of the steel. Sulphur and phosphorous are two harmful Powder metallurgy offers a way to produce more highly alloyed elements (in terms of fatigue strength) which remelted steels seek to steels, and a wider range of products is becoming available by this reduce to a minimum. method, offering compositions that would be difficult or impossible There are single, and double re-melt steels, each of which offers to produce by direct alloying methods. Some of these steels, although an improvement in fatigue strength. The costs involved with each developed for other industries,MEDIA. have properties or combinations of re-melting are considerable, as each one involves a lot of waste in properties that cannot be found in direct-alloyed products. Fig. 8 discarding bar ends, ladle waste, material skimmed off when slag is shows the microstructure of a powder metallurgy steel with particles of removed and material discarded when the scaly outer layer of the small carbides visible. bar is removed during a process called peeling. A 50% loss in the Powder metallurgy methods are driving toward ever-smaller powder original yield of the material is common for multiple re-melt steels. sizes. The result of this is that any defects are correspondingly small, However, there is a diminishing return in this improvement versus improving the fracture and fatigue behaviour. Powder sizes of a few cost, and only those who have undertaken a lot of optimisation work microns are being investigated, and we are likely to find that these can probably justify using the most expensive grades of material. It premium steels will be used far more widely in the next few years. is true that using the re-melt grades will offer an increased factor of There is also a push towards ‘tighter’ chemistry for steel, giving safety, but as one manufacturer told me recently, “Most less variation within composition limits in order to produce greater people would never have a failure, even with the most basic material, POWERconsistency in properties and response to heat treatment. so these steels only increase cost.” Maraging steels are finding more commercial applications and are The development of steels with properties seemingly tailored to suit interesting because of their low-temperature heat treatment and high certain uses within the engine are common, with some experimental levels of strength. With conventional steels, the heat treatment leaves and commercially available steels offering lower densities (more than a very hard, brittle structure after quenching from the initial hardening 10% for one experimental steel) than the normal grades, which have temperature, so tempering is needed in order for them to be useful for a density of 7.85g/cm3. Some offer far higher elastic modulus, with a the intended purpose. In the case of maraging steels, the as-quenched 10% increase being available in many commercially availableHIGH steels condition is relatively soft and ductile. and a few offering an increase in modulus of the order of 15-20%, The material is supplied in this as-quenched state and, as such, compared to the standard value of 209 GPa. can be machined and welded. To bring about the final hardened These examples of lower density and increased modulus offer state in the component a relatively low-temperature ageing process the opportunity for lower-mass components or significant increases is used at about 485 C (about 900 F). The heat treatment process, in stiffness. For valvetrain and cranktrain componentsOF this can be a known as martensitic precipitation ageing, gives these materials their significant advantage. name. The temperature of the final heat treatment is low enough REPUBLISHED to avoid significant distortion ONLINE in the machined or fabricated components. There is a range of these high-nickel steels available, with ultimate tensile strengths up BE to 2400 MPa (350,000 psi). OR Steel valve wire is an area of research that continues to yield improvement for both road and race engines. There is great TO interest in spring wire because improvement of the fatigue and relaxation characteristics means that lighter springs can be used, PROPERTY which is good for friction, and PRINT hence the roadcar manufacturers’ NOT interest in these materials. Fig. 7 – Premium grades of steel are Similarly, race engine designers or often re-melted, offering greater fatigue those specifying parts for engine resistance (Courtesy of Aubert andIN Duval)

upgrades can run higher stresses in t

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Fig. 8 – The microstructure of this powder metallurgy steel clearly shows fine carbide particles (Courtesy of Eramet Alloys)

1990s at which research into the surface engineering of titanium was discussed. According to the research, by using a number of processes to engineer the surface of the material to support a combination of rolling and sliding loads, valvetrain gears had been MEDIA.run successfully in a race engine for a limited period of time. The work is summarised in several papers (4), one of which is by Dong. Simply using DLC or one of the other new coatings in this application is not going to make this a success. The predominant alloy for all uses except valves is Ti-6Al-4V, which has a huge proportion of POWER market share both for motorsport the springs. and other industries, and is available comparatively cheaply in good There are steel materials with strength levels far in excess of quality wrought form. A note of caution here though: there is also anything we have discussed so far. Used in a number of applications, some very cheap bar stock out there which is of absolutely abysmal although none I am aware of in motorsport, there is a commercially quality. The worst quality material I have ever seen was some titanium available steel with a tensile strength in excess of 5000 MPa (730,000 bar, purchased from the Far East. So if it seems far too cheap, it psi) and which has good ductility. The product is available only in probably is and there will be a reason for it. the form of very fine wires, and so would only be of realHIGH use as a Beyond Ti-6Al-4V, there are a number of materials which the reinforcement material. aerospace industry has been using to substitute for steel components Metal-matrix composites based on steel are another area of in applications such as landing gear. These alloys have markedly interesting R&D. Many of these materials offer both increased modulus improved strength compared to Ti-6Al-4V, but their density is higher and lower density than the steels they are based on and could have a than that of Ti-6Al-4V. number of useful applications in race engines.OF In looking to substitute Ti-6Al-4V with an alternative material, Iron-based intermetallics are being developed for tooling use, we have to consider the proportion of material that is limited by and are being used for trials now. These are reckoned toREPUBLISHED offer strength, and how other important considerations of the design are excellent properties for cutting tools, retaining hardness beyond the ONLINEaffected by the relevant mechanical and physical properties of the temperatures at which high-speed steels lose hardness and strength. other material, such as modulus, density and so on. If they become available in quantity in the future, it is likely that they Titanium spring wire has found some race engine applications, could be used to replace superalloys for valve applications. although mainly for single-spring applications, owing to the surface BE behaviour of the material. Interference-fit nested springs would not be Titanium OR likely to survive for long. Titanium is now widely accepted for use in racing, particularly for Titanium fasteners are widely available in Ti-6Al-4V, and I have a lot valvetrain components and con rods, but also for other components, of them holding some fairly critical pieces of my motorcycle together. particularly fasteners (Fig. 9) At the very least, it is important to use a high-quality lubricant when One characteristic of titaniumTO is the way it behaves in contact using titanium fasteners. Far better though to use a permanent surface situations, especially sliding contact. Despite being quite a strong treatment in these situations that cannot either be omitted through material, it has a tendency to gall or smear under low load when forgetfulness or displaced by the natural action of the fastener. sliding. Its success in many applications depends on proper surface Titanium valves are very popular, as they allow lighter springs or treatmentPROPERTY or careful engineering of contact conditions – for example, more aggressive valve lift profiles to be used. As such, they have fitting a bronze bush in the small endPRINT of a con rod, where a steel rod enjoyed a lot of materials development in recent years, with a number can run happilyNOT without a bush. of new alloys being introduced. There are a number of surface treatments for titanium which There are some series-production engines that use titanium valves, increase its ability to be usedIN in sliding contacts, but these need to be and this could become more popular as the quest for ever-lower

properly supported. I attended a prize lecture in London in the late friction continues. The titanium materials for high-temperature use are t

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Fig. 9 – Many fasteners are routinely made in a number of titanium alloysHIGH (courtesy of T&K Precision) more highly alloyed, using more expensive alloying elements. They are These are used for many important parts in the modern bespoke race correspondingly more expensive than a basic material. Titanium has engine, mainly where there is sliding motion and where lubrication been almost universal in top-flight circuit racing for a number of years is marginal. Intermittent and low-sliding velocity applications such as now and, while the current economic climate and regulations persist, con rod small-end bushes and valve guides are good examples here. that is likely to remain the case. OF Copper-nickel-silicon alloys are popular, typically containing 2- Titanium is used widely for exhaust manufacture for both race and 3% of nickel and about 1% of silicon. However, some more heavily road applications, particularly on motorcycles. MotorcycleREPUBLISHED exhausts alloyed materials, known as ‘spinodal alloys’ containing much are well-supported and this means that creep is less of a concern than ONLINEhigher percentages of nickel and silicon – in one case about 15% in many racecar applications. Titanium suppliers have developed nickel and 8% silicon – have been used with success in such sliding specific alloys to cater for this use. Some are low-alloy materials while motion applications. Alloys containing small amounts of beryllium others which have been tried for more highly stressed applications are favoured by some engine builders for heavily loaded small-end have been heavily alloyed. In addition to creep,BE titanium exhaust bushes. alloys must cope with embrittlement due to oxidation of theOR material Beryllium-copper alloys, typically containing less than 2% by mass surface. of beryllium, are favoured by many race engine builders for use as One material in which the roadcar companies have shown interest valve seats because of their combination of strength and high thermal is titanium aluminide, which was used for a while in Formula One for conductivity. valves. It has low density and veryTO high stiffness, and remains legal in Copper alloys are widely used for lifter bores on racing OHV most other race series. Its use is limited only by cost, as in many ways (pushrod) engines, and some high-strength aluminium-bronze alloys it is an ideal valve material. are used for pushrod tips. It is for this application that the roadcar manufacturers would like There are also promising alternatives to beryllium-copper alloys in thePROPERTY material to become more economical to produce in quantity. In the form of copper alloys originally developed for mould production. racing, should regulations and economicalPRINT conditions allow, titanium aluminide is likelyNOT to return, either for use in valvetrains or as a Superalloys material for con rods, for which it is also well suited. Piston pins are The term ‘superalloys’ is generally applied to materials developed another good application INof such a material. for high-temperature use and which are based on nickel or cobalt.

Copper alloys Owing to the ‘strategic’ nature of the constituent elements in these t

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Fig. 10 – This exhaust header from a race motorcycle is made of Inconel, series-production cars, it has to have a superalloy material (Courtesy of Good Fabrications) something to offer. The new Formula One engine regulations will go some way towards this, but materials regulations ought to reflect the use of current series- production materials at the very least, and there is a good argument in favour MEDIA.of racing being able to provide a lead. We might also argue that what was affordable in previous decades should be affordable now. The danger with writing rules that are too detailed is that there are often loopholes in them. Such is the case with the current Formula One regulations, which seem to allow one type of metal- matrix composites. While these materials may not be within the intended spirit of materials – they are used in large quantities by aerospace and defence POWERthe rules, they do come within the wording of the rules and are therefore companies – the alloying elements are expensive, which makes legal. It is probably only the ‘deep freeze’ of engine development that superalloys correspondingly expensive. has prevented this loophole from being exploited. These highly alloyed materials are often used for valves, especially exhaust valves, in turbocharged applications. Exhaust systems are Summary often made from them as well, and this practice is becoming more The field of materials technology is one where development is driven popular despite the initial cost, as the exhausts using materials such as largely, to our benefit, by other industries, particularly aerospace and Inconel (Fig. 10) are much more durable than alloys suchHIGH as stainless defence. Both of these have aims that are similar to ours: they strive steel or titanium. to produce lightweight structures, engines and vehicles that operate Another significant area where superalloys are used is in the at higher temperatures and with increased durability. While there are manufacture of high-strength fasteners. Con rod bolts are commonly a number of well-funded race organisations that are able to develop made of these expensive materials, as are some other critical fasteners, bespoke materials, in general we must look to commercially available such as cylinder-head studs and main bearingOF bolts in highly loaded alloys to find an improvement. applications. REPUBLISHEDReferences: Regulations ONLINE1. Ashby, M.F. “Materials Selection in Mechanical Design”, Unfortunately Formula One, from where a lot of new materials 3rd edition, 2005, Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann, ISBN 0750661682 development trickles down to less well-financed race formulae, [2] van der Put, D. “Compacted Graphite Iron, or….not?”, http:// is fettered by particularly harsh regulations concerning materials; www.ret-monitor.com/articles/1159/compacted-graphite-iron-ornot/ NASCAR is similarly encumbered. The ideaBE of the regulations is to save [3] Ward, W. “Structural Symphony” RET 42 [November 2009], companies from themselves in that if they can’t spend the ORmoney on pp 32-40 new materials, they will just save it and our roadcars will be cheaper [4] Funitani K, Totten G.E. et al. “Heat Treating: Proceedings of the as a consequence, or the shareholders of the company will become 20th Conference Including Advances in Surface Engineering – An that little bit less poor. TO International Symposium in Honor of Professor Tom Bell”, ASM In reality, the companies will decide what they can afford to spend, International, ISBN 0871707276 t or need to spend, and will then spend that amount. If they can’t spend

the money on materials, they will spend it on more iterations of design ACKNOWLEDGMENTS during a season. There is a discussion to be had about which has more The author wishes to thank the following for their help with this benefit.PROPERTY This is not to say though that Formula One has a monopoly on article: Paul Harvey and David Brown of Bohler Steels, Graham stringent material regulations. PRINT Franklin of Eramet/Aubert and Duval, Roger Thomas of Timet, Roger Senden of RSP, Andrew Tarrant of AMC, Mitch Dziekonski and Roger When we look at the number and type of materials banned in NOT Hopper of Titanium Engineers, Cliff Moberg of Performance Alloys race series and compare them to those currently used in production and Services, Paul Garrett of Smiths Metals and Andrew King and cars, or are being consideredIN for use in production cars, we see that Graham Hutchins of Aeromet. series production leads the way. If racing seeks to be relevant to

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EXAMPLES OF ADVANCED METAL MANUFACTURERS AND SUPPLIERS

CANADA Metal Improvement Company Rio Tinto Alcan +44 1635 279621 www.metalimprovement.com +1 514 848 8000 www.riotinto.com/riotintoalcan Metalweb +44 121 328 7700 www.metalweb.co.uk FINLAND Smiths High Performance Outo Kumpo +44 1767 604708 www.smithshp.com +46 226 81000 www.outokumpu.com Super Alloys InternationalMEDIA. +44 1908 260707 www.superalloys.co.uk FRANCE ThyssenKrupp Aubert & Duval +44 1793 767666 www.metalfast.co.uk +33 145 38 38 61 www.aubertdeval.com TIMET +44 1792 870335 www.timet.com GERMANY Titanium Industries Peak-Werkstoff +44 121 788 8065 www.titanium.com +49 2053 951611 www.peak-werkstoff.de TTI Group Powder Light Metals +44 1582 486644 www.ttigroup.co.uk +49 204 39 44465 www.powder-light-metals.com

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