Lightweight castings for truck applications

Grede a leading producer of cast iron components for transportation applications, is developing durable, lightweight chassis, powertrain and drivetrain components – including safety-critical systems – for heavy duty truck applications using a ductile iron alloy called SiboDur.

SiboDur is an ultra-high-strength, lightweight ductile iron with a distinctive chemistry and process that is providing heavy truck customers with the robustness required of the severe environments their equipment endure every day,” says Tony Lovell, vice president of global sales and marketing for Grede.

“SiboDur competes favorably with aluminum in terms of weight reduction and its high-strength characteristics provide cost, fatigue life and manufacturability advantages over ADI (austempered ductile iron) and forged steel.

“SiboDur enables us to provide our heavy truck customers with cost-effective, lightweight solutions, while maintaining high structural performance and durability,” he continues. “It also enables excellent product design optimization and parts integration capabilities given the higher mechanical properties versus competing materials that are cost prohibitive.”

Heavy duty truck manufacturers worldwide are using, developing and testing SiboDur in a variety of components for current and future vehicle programs, he notes. These include safety-critical parts with high stress and torque requirements, such as steering knuckles, differential cases, control arms, hubs, brackets, engine mounts, crankshafts and suspension links.

SiboDur was developed by Swiss-based Georg Fischer Automotive AG. Grede has an exclusive license to produce the alloy in North America.

In addition to the heavy equipment industry, Grede also is supplying SiboDur-based castings for automotive, light and heavy duty trucks and other industrial applications.