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I’ve often talked about Tesla’s efforts to introduce a large amount of recycled aluminum from different sources into its Gigacasting process.

In this image captured by Joe Tegtmeyer you can see the different sources for Tesla’s secondary aluminum. This recycling plant is integrated right into Tesla’s Gigacasting shop.

This new patent published on December 18th describes Tesla’s Gigacasting alloy and the process to obtain the desired yield strength and ductility from a wide array of secondary aluminum sources.

ALUMINUM ALLOY COMPOSITION UTILIZING SCRAP METAL, AND METHODS THEREOF

Scrap aluminum, abundant from recycled sources, often contains impurities like iron (Fe), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) that can degrade performance, forming brittle phases that reduce ductility or cause casting defects.

This patent proposes a solution: Forming an alloy that can use at least 30% scrap aluminum (and potentially much higher, up to nearly 100%) by intelligently managing these impurities through targeted additives and two empirical metrics, the Hard Factor (HF) and Advanced Sludge Factor (ASF).

The solution involves a sophisticated chemical balancing act. Rather than expensively purifying this scrap, they measure the impurities in the melt and introduce specific "performance improving additives" such as manganese, magnesium, vanadium, strontium, and silicon.

The core alloy composition is tailored for the production of high strength large castings which don’t require heat treatment:

The resulting as-cast alloy delivers:

These properties make it suitable for crash-critical structural parts, like underbody Gigacastings offering performance comparable to premium alloys but with greater sustainability.

Hard Factor and Advanced Sludge Factor

The Hard Factor is an empirical metric introduced to predict and control the balance between strength and ductility by controlling the use of performance improving additives. HF for an aluminum alloy may be adjusted by additions of Mg, Cu, and Zn, according to the empirical equation below.

- Hard Factor (HF) = (3 × Mg%) + (2 × Cu%) + Zn%

The Advanced Sludge Factor formulation can be used to reduce the risk of sludge formation within the melt furnace and to predict a volume fraction of AlFeSi phases that may be detrimental to ductility in a cast aluminum alloy product. It can also be used to ensure that the elemental content does not drift too low of a threshold which may negatively impact castability such as die solder and/or erosion.

The ASF can be adjusted according to the equation below.

- Advanced Sludge Factor (ASF) = Fe% + (2 × Mn%) + (3 × sum of V, Cr, Co, Ni, Mo%)

This technology enables "closed-loop" recycling for high-performance applications, reducing reliance on primary aluminum, which is energy-intensive to produce. It counters impurity buildup in scrap streams, potentially lowering costs and emissions while supporting the growing demand for lightweight, strong materials in electric vehicles.

If you would like to deep dive into this patent and all of its details you can read it from the source: patentscope.wipo.int

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