Kobe Steel, Ltd.

Hiroaki Hosoi

Hiroaki Watanabe

Keita Okada

Yoshihaya Imamura

Hideki Ishitobi

Hidetaka Kanahashi

Hajime Nakamura

Teppei Hoshino

Kouki Sugino

Keisuke Akasaki

Mitsutoshi Mori

Keiji Yazaki

When a T1-tempered aluminum alloy extrusion is subjected to plastic working and thus formed into a product, crack occurrence is prevented during plastic working, and tensile residual stress of the product is reduced to improve stress corrosion cracking resistance. A T1-tempered 7000-series aluminum alloy extrusion is heated to a temperature range of 150&#xb0; C. or higher, and then subjected to plastic working within the temperature range, and then cooled, and then subjected to artificial temper aging. An integral value (F) of (T(t)&#x2212;140)is controlled to 5&#xd7;10(&#xb0; C.&#xb7;s) or less in a section of t&#x2264;t&#x2264;t, where t is time (s) from heating start, T(t) is temperature (&#xb0; C.) of the extrusion at time t, tis time before the extrusion reaches 140&#xb0; C. in a heating step, and tis time before the extrusion reaches 140&#xb0; C. again in a cooling step.

Method for manufacturing 7000-series aluminum alloy member

The objective of the present invention is to improve the rigidity of a vehicle knuckle made from an aluminum alloy with respect to a force directed from the outside to the inside in the width direction of a vehicle. A vehicle knuckle () is provided with a bearing support portion (), a knuckle upper portion () and a knuckle lower portion (). With the vehicle knuckle () in a position fitted to a vehicle main body, the knuckle upper portion () has a shape in which, if the knuckle upper portion () is divided equally into five or more regions in a vertical direction, and the center of the bearing support portion () is fixed and a horizontal load F is applied to a knuckle upper end portion () from the outside toward the inside in the width direction of the vehicle, the minimum value of a value obtained by dividing the strain energy in each of the five or more regions other than a first region (A) by the mass of the corresponding region is at least equal to 0.70 times the maximum value thereof.

Vehicle knuckle

Provided is a vehicle suspension member securing a strength against external force in a vehicle longitudinal direction. A lower arm includes an arm body, a front bush support part, a rear bush support part, a ball joint support part, a first rib, a second rib, and a third rib. The third rib is disposed in a lateral part connecting the ball joint support part to the rear bush support part. An S-shaped rib center curve of the third rib intersects with a straight line at an intersection. |(1&#x2212;S2/S1)|&#x2264;0.2 is satisfied, where S1 is area of a first region defined by the rib center curve and the first straight line, and S2 is area of a second region.

Vehicle suspension member

An automobile undercarriage component has at least three elongated arms, each including a web and a rib having an inner wall surface. One of the three elongated arms is a first arm having a first one of the ribs and at least one of the three elongated arms is a second arm having a second one of the ribs. For each of the second ones of the ribs, the leading end of the respective second one of the ribs has a width in the direction parallel to the plane of the web and transverse to the direction of elongation of the arm which is narrower than the width of a leading end of the first one of the ribs, as an inner wall surface is disposed closer to an opposing outer wall surface in the respective second one of the ribs as compared to the first one of the ribs.

Automobile undercarriage component

An automobile undercarriage component is provided with a web and a rib. The rib is configured so as to comprise a first section that is a section having the widest width and a second section that has a narrower width than the first section, and the second section having a narrower rib width than the first section as a result of an inner wall surface of the second section that is continuously formed from the web being provided so as to be adjacent to a facing outer surface wall.

An end of a stay material made of a tubular aluminum alloy extruded material is expanded by electromagnetic molding to form a flange for producing a bumper stay. The flange width is increased without cracking and a decrease in the thickness. A stay material having a circumferential wall undulating in a waveform pattern is used. A circumferential length L (one round length along waveform pattern) of the outer periphery wall along the circumferential direction of the stay material is longer than a circumferential length Lof a simple cylindrical circumferential wall having the same outer diameter (circumscribed circle) (L&#x3e;L). L&#x2212;Lis an excessive line length. Since the circumferential wall has the excessive line length, when the end of the circumferential wall is expanded to form the flange, the flange having a large diameter can be formed.

Energy absorbing member, method for producing same, and electromagnetic tube expansion method for rectangular cross-section member and polygon cross-section member

An L-shape vehicular suspension arm includes a unitary body forged from an aluminum alloy. The unitary body includes a web and ribs. The web is substantially planar, and the ribs extend from surfaces of the web at peripheral edges of the web. In cross-section, at least one part of the unitary body has a U-shape, an H-shape, or an inverted U-shape, such that dimensions of the unitary body satisfy expression (1) or (2):0.05&#x2266;()/&#x2266;0.25&#x2003;&#x2003;(1)4&#x2266;()/&#x2266;19&#x2003;&#x2003;(2)where H is a total height of the unitary body, and Hr is a height from a center of the web to a lowermost point of the unitary body.

Suspension arm for automobile

Provided is an electromagnetic pipe expanding inductor in which the formation of voids during resin impregnation is suppressed, and electromagnetic reaction forces acting on the conductor periphery and on the interface between the shaft portion and the center-side fiber layer is diminished, and thereby durability is improved and the life of the inductor is prolonged. A glass cloth tape () capable of being impregnated with resin is wound around the peripheral surface of a shaft portion of a bobbin () to a predetermined thickness, further, a conductor strand () coated with a glass cloth tape () is wound spirally in the axial direction of the bobbin () to form a coil. Further, a glass cloth () is wound around the outside of the glass cloth tape () to a predetermined thickness and thereafter the glass cloth tapes () and the glass cloth () are impregnated with resin to unite them. A center-side resin-impregnated layer formed by the glass cloth tape 3 impregnated with resin is lower in the modulus of longitudinal elasticity than the shaft portion. Given that the inductor radius is r, the thickness, t, of the center-side resin-impregnated layer is 0.025r to 0.25r.

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Kobe, Japan

Hiroaki Hosoi