Process Limits of Extrusion of Multimaterial Components

Three innovative extrusion processes for manufacturing of multimaterial parts are discussed: co-extrusion of discontinuously steel reinforced aluminum profiles, composite extrusion of continuously steel wire reinforced profiles, and composite rod extrusion. In the first two processes, the embedded steel elements are not deformable; while in the case of composite rod extrusion, both materials are deformed. By means of experimental and numerical analyses, the process parameters that mainly influence the reinforcement ratio, the extrusion force as well as the material distribution are analyzed. On the basis of the above, the analytical approaches are deduced to describe the process limits for the proposed technologies. The paper closes with examples of applications regarding the lightweight requirements as well as functional integrations by forming multimaterials.