Lightweight of a cross beam for commercial vehicles: Development, testing and validation

Commonly the reduction of weight in transport is applied to passenger cars, while commercial vehicles are still not widely involved due to structural and costs restraints. This research studied a new concept of aluminium cross beam suspension for commercial vehicles that would replace the currently used steel component. The related advantages entail the achievement of an affordable solution, weight reduction of about 50%, environmental benefits, avoidance of painting and excellent recyclability. The use of appropriate materials, a new concept of design and a careful function integration allowed the structural limits to be overcome. The feasibility of this solution was verified through detailed characterisation and testing, composed of an analysis of the most relevant failure modes, with microstructures, hardness tests, tensile tests, fractography, salt spray test and fatigue test bench road simulator with field test data. The validation was successfully completed and the feasibility of the light alloy use for this particular heavy application was demonstrated. Further experiments, based on the development of heat treatments for potential future extension of this application, were conducted with the support of Design Of Experiment methodology. The outputs constitute a useful database of properties.