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The automotive industry continues to look for opportunities to reduce weight and cost while simultaneously increasing performance and durability. Since the introduction of aluminum cylinder blocks and heads, very few “innovations” have been made in powertrain design and materials. Cast crankshafts have the potential to produce significant weight savings (3-18 kg) with little or no cost penalty. With the advent of new, high strength, cast ductile iron materials, such as MADI™ (machinable austempered ductile iron), which has the highly desirable combination of good strength, good toughness, good machinability and low cost, lightweight crankshafts are posed to become a high volume production reality. An extreme demonstration of a lightweight crankshaft is the current use of a cast MADI crankshaft in the 1100 HP Darrell Cox sub-compact drag race car.

A unique combination of metal chemistry and heat treatment has lead to the invention of MADI (machinable austempered ductile iron). Two MADI grades have been developed: chassis grade for fatigue critical applications and crankshaft grade for high strength applications. The mechanical properties, fatigue life of components and quantitative machinability data of MADI, regular ADI and pearlitic ductile iron are presented. Since the design strength of MADI is 50-100% higher than currently used as-cast ductile irons, significantly lighter weight components can now be produced. MADI may lead the way to the increased use of low cost, ductile iron castings since, for the first time, both improved mechanical properties (fatigue resistance or high strength) and improved machinability have been obtained.

The use of aluminum to produce lightweight automotive castings has gained wide acceptance despite significant cost penalties. Lightweight iron and steel casting designs have been largely ignored despite their obvious cost and property advantages. This paper reviews and discusses the following: 1) various processes for producing lightweight iron and steel castings, 2) examples of lightweight components in high-volume production, 3) examples of conversions from aluminum to iron, 4) material properties of interest to designers, 5) examples of concept components and 6) efforts to improve the design and manufacturing processes for lightweight iron and steel castings. In summary, the potential for low-cost, lightweight iron and steel castings to aid the automotive industry in achieving both cost and weight objectives has been demonstrated and continues to expand. In general, however, automotive designers and engineers have not yet fully taken advantage of these technologies.