In the automotive industry, there is a large need to reduce environmental impact, energy consumption and costs related to manufacturing of forged aluminium suspensions. The replacement of extruded with cast forging stock is one option which offers large potentials for such savings. Forging is a well-suited manufacturing process for producing near-net shape components, requiring minimal need for post-processing. Forged aluminium components offers, in addition to low weight, a high strength, corrosion and fatigue resistance, important for safety critical automotive components, such as aluminium suspension. Traditionally, extruded forging stock is used, as the extrusion process provides a forging stock with the desirable initial diameter, surface quality and a homogeneous microstructure, resulting in high performance components. However, extrusion is a costly and energy demanding process and finding an alternative process route is therefore of high interest.

The new casting technology, known as Low-Pressure Casting (LPC, developed by Hydro Aluminum R&D) allows for production of high-quality cast forging stock, with a high surface quality and with smaller diameters than achieved with traditional casting technologies. Thus, the LPC forging stock offer the possibility of being directly applied into a forging line without the need for extrusion or scalping. Hot forging trials with LPC and extruded forging stock have been conducted to investigate and directly compare the formability and resulting mechanical properties of after forging. With the goal of understanding the influence of deformation on achieved properties. The potential in the LPC forging stock has then been further evaluated by producing aluminium suspensions in the currently running production line at Raufoss Technology. The work highlights how LPC forged aluminum components can achieve properties and performance, on par with components produced from extruded forging stock.