Tesla applies for new aluminum alloy patents

Palo Alto, California-based electric vehicle maker Tesla has reportedly invented new aluminum die casting alloys designed to maintain high-yield strength and high conductivity while performing in vehicle component roles.

According to a write-up on website Electrek.com, Tesla has applied for a patent on the new alloys, developed in a joint effort by Elon Musk companies Tesla and SpaceX to “develop new advanced materials for their respective products.”

Quoting the patent application, Electrek says Tesla describes existing aluminum alloys as “either possessing high-yield strength or possessing high conductivity.” The firm cites the A356 alloy as having high yield strength but relatively low conductivity. Conversely, it points to the 100.1 aluminum alloy for possessing the opposite qualities.

Tesla claims its new alloys can achieve a yield strength closer to A356 while having conductive properties similar to those of the 100.1 alloy, according to Electrek.

Regarding the suitability of the alloys for die casting, Tesla writes in its patent of one of them, “The alloy has the proper fluidity to ensure that [it] wets the entire length of a mold and the mold is properly formed, and such that the alloy resists hot-tearing and retains the desired yield strength when the cast solidifies.”