177 – 186 ISSN 1641-8581 Publishing House AKAPIT COMPUTER METHODS IN MATERIALS SCIENCE Informatyka w Technologii Materiał ów Vol. 16, 2016, No. 4 COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN OF MANUFACTURING OF AUTOMOTIVE PART MADE OF MAGNESIUM ALLOY MATEUSZ AMBROZIŃSKI 1 , ŁUKASZ RAUCH 1 *, MAREK PAĆKO 1 , ZBIGNIEW GRONOSTAJSKI 2 , KAROL JAŚKIEWICZ 2 , WŁADYSŁAW CHORZĘPA 3 1 AGH University of Science and Technology, al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków, Poland 2 Politechnika Wrocławska, ul. Łukasiewicza 5, 50-371 Wrocław, Poland 3 Kirchhoff Polska Sp. z o.o., ul. Wojska Polskiego, 39-300 Mielec, Poland *Corresponding author: lrauch@agh.edu.pl Abstract Evaluation of the possibility of substitution of steel part in the car body by the one made of AZ31 alloy was the objec- tive of the paper. Bracket in the support of the steering wheel was selected for the analysis. Two criteria were selected to evaluate the possibility of using the Mg alloy part: i) stiffness of this part cannot be lower than that of the steel part, ii) Manufacturing of the part has to be possible. The objective of the research was a design of the shape of the bracket, that meets assumed criteria including manufacturing and assembly possibilities. The optimization task was formulated to reach this objective. Maximum stiffness of the part was the objective function and technological limitations were the con- straints. Dimensions of the bracket were the optimization variables. Optimal shape was designed and numerical simula- tions were performed to evaluate possibility of stamping of this part. Simulations have shown that the decrease of the thickness is within of acceptable limits and that the strains are below the limiting strains. Thus, proposition of the shape of the magnesium alloy bracket, which can be safely manufactured by stamping, is the main output of the paper. Key words: Magnesium alloys, stamping, automotive parts, computer aided design 1. INTRODUCTION The growing interest of using the lightweight structural materials, with satisfactory mechanical properties, makes the scientific and research centres to develop accurate methods of design forming pro- cesses, for which the most important are data col- lected during real experiments, allowing for the cor- rect development of production technology. Magne- sium alloys are an example of such a material, suc- cessfully used for many years in various fields of industry, including automotive industry (Blawert et al., 2004; Kulekci, 2008; Kawalla et al, 2008a; Musfirah & Jaharah, 2012; Sameer Kumar et al., 2015; Kawalla et al., 2008b). In recent years, the role of magnesium and its alloys as particularly use- ful construction materials has rapidly increased. Numerous publications dealing with investigation of plastic forming of these alloys can be found in the scientific literature (eg. Kawalla et al., 2006; Hadasik et al, 2009; Ullmann et al., 2012, Kuc et al., 2012; Kuc et al., 2013; Kuc et al., 2014). The most important advantageous features are low density of magnesium alloys and their reasonably low price. Furthermore, the continuous improvement of mate- rial and technical properties of magnesium alloys enables the improvement of forming methods of finished products. It is worth to note, that design of technology of finished products manufacturing from magnesium alloys, particularly alloys for plastic forming, faces a number of problems related to the phenomena that inhibit processes of sheet metal forming. The main aim of the present work was to develop guidelines necessary to design the stamping technology of bracket made from magnesium alloy AZ31, which is