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Wheels:
Alcoa manufactures world's largest single-piece forged aluminum tank hull

Alcoa's single-piece forged aluminum hull aims to improve troop protection on combat vehicles like those shown here as part of a joint Alcoa-US Army initiative. [Photo courtesy: U.S. Army]

 

 

Alcoa has produced the world's largest single-piece forged aluminum hull for combat vehicles to improve troop protection as part of a joint Alcoa-US Army initiative launched last year. Announced in October in Washington, DC, at the Association of the US Army Annual Meeting -- the largest landpower expo in North America -- Alcoa manufactured the single-piece part, which was co-designed by Alcoa and the US Army Research Laboratory, with the goal of replacing today's assembled hulls.

Based on early modeling and simulation, single-piece underbody structures could provide two times better protection against blasts, such as those caused by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), than traditional hulls, primarily by eliminating welded seams. In addition to survivability benefits, single-piece hulls can be optimized to reduce vehicle weight and assembly time, and, therefore, overall cost. This hull is designed to cover the entire lower section of a combat vehicle.

A Bradley Fighting Vehicle that was damaged after it was hit by an improvised explosive device while patrolling the streets of Balad. [Photo courtesy: U.S. Army]

 

 

The Army is now blast testing the hull to demonstrate its durability. After successful testing, this initiative would open up numerous opportunities for the military to apply single-piece structures to large combat vehicles and other applications.

The forged aluminum hull from Alcoa. [Photo credit: Alcoa]

 

 

The hull is part of the Army's Affordable Protection from Objective Threats Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) program, created to improve the military's defense against modern-day threats such as IEDs using affordable, advanced manufacturing technologies.

"A monolithic hull could be used to produce new, or retrofit existing, combat and tactical vehicles," says Rob Carter, Chief of Materials Manufacturing Technology Branch at the Army Research Laboratory. "This demonstrates new manufacturing approaches to open the design space for higher performance hulls and underbody kits. This could make a huge, positive impact on improving soldier protection with affordable manufacturing technologies."

Since launching the cooperative effort last year, Alcoa Defense and the Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command's (RDECOM) Army Research Laboratory have coordinated research and development efforts to refine the hull design and develop the alloy requirements.

Alcoa produced two demonstrator forgings 20 ft x 7 ft at its plant in Cleveland using its 50,000-ton forging press, the world's most advanced hydraulic press. Alcoa's engineers in Cleveland leveraged their expertise and decades of commercial forging experience to produce the hull earlier than the expected deliverable of 18 months.

Alcoa's single-piece aluminum hull would improve combat vehicle performance, providing approximately twice the blast protection than traditional hulls via:

• Stronger solid structure: A single-piece hull would eliminate welded seams used in today's manufacturing processes, covering the entire lower section of any combat vehicle.
• Efficient design: Forging hulls as one unit facilitates three-dimensional shaping, allowing Alcoa to tailor the thickness where needed to maximize protection and allow for weight savings.
• Cost savings: The structure is expected to reduce costs over the life of the vehicle by increasing fuel efficiency through lightweighting and eliminating assembly time and complexity.

Alcoa's single-piece hull eliminates welded seams to improve the military's defense against improvised explosive devices (IEDs). [Photo credit: Alcoa]

 

 

"We moved this idea from concept to reality in record time," says Eric Roegner, President of Alcoa Defense, "and are already looking into forging other parts of combat vehicles."

Source: Alcoa

Published December 2014

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