Front Aluminum Subframe of High Level Vacuum Die-casting

The subframe has been generally manufactured by using stamped steel material. Recently, automotive designers are considering aluminum as lightweight material. This paper describes the development process of an aluminum subframe which is made by high level vacuum die casting process, which is beneficial for minimizing gas contents and material properties. The weight of manufactured subframe is reduced by 4kg with the comparison of steel subframe. The aluminum subframe is packaged for the current vehicle layout and the imposed requirement is to attain a better structural performance that is evaluated in terms of mounting stiffness, noise and vibration, and endurance performance. The NVH evaluation results show that sound level is decreased by 8dB with the help of high roll-rod mounting stiffness as well as high structural modes.