American, Japanese, and European car makers have pushed hard to incorporate aluminum into their vehicles, and now our neighbors to the north are jumping on the bandwagon — except instead of just cars, they’re looking at the bigger picture. The National Research Council Of Canada has announced a new focus on studying aluminum innovations for the transportation industry. From Collision Repair Magazine (note the alternate spelling for aluminum):
“Canada is a global leader in producing aluminium, and now has the opportunity to lead the world in the transformation of aluminium into parts for lighter weight vehicles,” says Michel Dumoulin, General Manager of the Automotive and Surface Transportation portfolio at the National Research Council of Canada. “This program will support Canadian manufacturers in developing lighter parts and structures that will make our vehicles more fuel efficient, safer and environmentally friendly.”
The new Lightweighting of Ground Transportation Vehicles program will see to the development, validation and deployment of advanced technologies to form aluminium into parts and to assemble and join these parts into next-generation vehicles. The $45-million program will enable the industry to reduce overall vehicle weight by 10 percent within the next eight years.
While Canada doesn’t produce the volume of vehicles as the United States, Germany, or Japan, its manufacturing industry contributes parts to car companies around the world. This new government initiative to support aluminum innovation shows that the aluminum movement isn’t just isolated to one company or even one country – it’s an end-to-end revolution across the entire workflow.