Consortium awarded £9.6m to develop high strength, lightweight car parts

by

Professor Jianguo Lin

Professor Jianguo Lin is working on the project at Imperial

Imperial College London is part of a partnership that secured funding to develop complex, high strength aluminium components for cars.

The RACEForm (Rapid Aluminium Cost-Effective Forming) project focuses on validating for mass production the HFQ® Technology, a trade mark registered by consortium leader Impression Technologies Ltd (a spinout company from Imperial). Gestamp Washington UK Limited, Innoval Technology Limited, Brunel University London are also partners in the project.

HFQ® is based on the research of Professor Jianguo Lin, currently head of the Mechanics of Materials division in Imperial’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. The technology helps make vehicles lighter and more environmentally friendly, enabling aluminium components to be formed with high productivity and low costs.

The total value of the 30-month project is £9.5 million, including a £4.8m grant from the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (APC). The research at Imperial is led by Professor Jianguo Lin, Dr Jun Jiang and Dr Bamber Blackman.

Reporter

Nadia Barbu

Nadia Barbu
Department of Mechanical Engineering