Dubbed DuraForm-G91, the new material – which will displayed at the Frankfurt IAA show later this month (September 2015) – is said to deliver between three and five times the component life of established materials in modern, highly loaded, diesel engines.
Roman Morgenstern, specialist in the global pistons division at Federal-Mogul Powertrain, says that the enhanced alloy properties facilitate piston designs with a lower compression height and reduced mass.
“We have employed specially designed accelerated base engine tests combined with engine-like rig testing procedures,” states Morgenstern.
“Engine-like rig testing combines thermomechanical fatigue [TMF] with high cycle mechanical fatigue [HCMF], which directly reflects the fatigue-critical load conditions seen by automotive diesel pistons in the engine,” he explains.
In both engine testing and TMF-HCMF testing, DuraForm-G91 confirmed three to five times the fatigue life of current as-cast alloys, he adds.
Further, during isothermal high cycle mechanical fatigue testing at temperatures above 350°C, the improvement was even more pronounced, at over eight times the life.
And Morgenstern says that additional engine testing has shown wear rates equal to those of the best current aluminium-silicon based piston materials.
Gian Maria Olivetti, chief technology officer at Federal-Mogul Powertrain, says that extensive casting development trials have been carried out to deliver consistently high material integrity and optimize the casting parameters.
“With our materials scientists at the technological forefront of the industry, we are committed to developing advanced new concepts for both aluminium and steel-based pistons for diesel vehicles, offering perfect fit solutions for the various needs of our customers,” he says,