Yazaki Sponsors First Place Michigan Technological University Senior Project
July 1, 2015

Aluminum Corrosion Team Members: Annie LeSage, Jacob Gerdt, Kyle Myszka, and Alexandra Glover

Yazaki’s Technology Management Group (TMG) collaborated with a team of Material Science and Engineering (MSE) students at Michigan Technological University to complete their senior project. For the first time in MSE recent history, their project received first place at a university-wide design expo. The four students outlined a process for the project which they presented to Senior Manager Matt Zanger and Senior Engineers Matt Baker and Ajay Singh who worked with the students to finalize a plan and provide technical assistance throughout the project.

“Working with the students and getting them excited about the opportunities and challenges the automotive field offers is a great way to keep the interest,” said Ajay Singh.

The project was called “Aluminum Bus Bar Corrosion Study—Automotive Electrical Systems” and studied the galvanic corrosion rate of aluminum bus bars with different plating when exposed to natural elements.

The goal of the project was to discover the potential challenges of switching to aluminum and find the expected lifetime of the new system when exposed to a corrosive environment. Switching to aluminum from Yazaki’s copper bus bars will decrease vehicle weight and the cost of raw materials. Ultimately, Yazaki wanted to know whether the switch would be worthwhile using the current pre-plating method.

“We hope to continue our relationship with MTU to sponsor more senior projects,” said Matt Baker. “Yazaki gets the chance to have research conducted on things we may not have time to test on our own while providing the students a great learning opportunity. I look forward to working with more students in the future.”

After the students completed extensive research and testing it was found that stamping the aluminum when it is already plated is not the best method. Microcracking of the plating material was happening too quickly and the aluminum was corroding faster than copper. They concluded that the process of plating and stamping would have to change in order for the aluminum replacement to be worthwhile.