Transmission Valve Body Manufacturing Process 1

[GrantR]

I have been posed with another problem...

I need to determine if there are processes (other than Diecasting)which are capable of producing a Transmission Valve body. We wish to find a cheaper alternative, in other words: less machining to produce the final product. For now, I wish to stay in the realm of aluminum products, but later I will be looking into replacing the aluminum with advanced materials such as glass filled resins, Thermoset plastics, etc.

I have spent the past few days surfing the net trying to find various processes that would be capable and I have found some that seem promising, but I can't seem to find specifics or capabilities. They always say "... capable of complex geometry...blah blah blah. ". Define complex geometry.. grrr! Anyway, I have found to date: Powdered Metal, Metal Injection Moulding, Investment casting, Forging, Semi-Solid Forming, and Thixoforming.

Now I am sure that one or more of these processes would be capable of creating the Valve bodies but I need one that is going to create a cheaper product than die casting. Also the process would have to be capable of the volumes common to the automotive industry, 40000 to 50000 parts/week.

If anyone could give any comments on this, it would be appreciated. Company names, websites, or suggestions would be helpful as well.

Thanks in advance.

Grant

 

[seek]

I will ask around for you. BMW once tried a plastic valve body in the 850 I believe. It failed dismally due to creep etc in the elevated temperatures. Maybe you can find papers on it somewhere. If I come up with anything I'll let you know. All that I have worked on have been Al.

Joe Sasso

 

[Engineeratwork]

Would appreciate it if you could give me good websites for AL Valve body machining

 

[swall]

GrantR--here's my take on this. You probably already have the most cost effective process of making this part. All of the alternatives have various issuesowder metal is porous, unless re-forged to higher density or infiltrated with copper. And, most pm is iron based ; aluminum is more of a specialty for pm.Metal injection molding is limited to very small parts because of the long sintering/binder burn off time.Investment casting is too expensive and not capable of your desired production rates.Forging will require more machining than die casting.Semisolid metal forming and thixoforming both require dies similar to diecasting, so there is no real advantage to either of those.Costs would be similar.One process that might be suitable would be evaporative pattern casting (lost foam). It is suitable for high volume, cost competitive with die casting and might be capable of allowing more features to be cast in place.

 

[Fabrico]

It seems like you would be doing them all at 40000 to 50000 a week!

I don't get it. If there is anything that the OEM's are good at, it's cutting costs. Why would all the car companies use roughly the same method? About the only machining is the valve bores and main face. How would you get around that? Maybe cast or forge the body around the passages with the valve spools in place. Good luck. This might be like re-inventing the wheel.

For the most part, valve bodies have become much simpler with increased use of solonoids to control things. Perhaps looking into better methods of fluid control would be more realistic. I would'nt quit my day job.