29 05, 2014

Where Can We Find Pure Aluminum?

2017-01-26T23:37:29+00:00May 29th, 2014|

We often discuss aluminum in the manufacturing process on this blog, whether that process is for something as big Ford’s flagship pick-up truck or the latest smartphone from Samsung or Apple. But what about out in nature?

While aluminum is a natural element usually found in the earth’s crust, it’s a very reactive elemnt and is usually found as a compound (combined with other minerals). So can pure aluminum actually be found? From American Minerologist via i09:

Several papers reporting exotic native elements have been published within the last few decades. The “native” occurrences described are rather dubious in view of the lack of solid proof of their relationships with the host-rock minerals. Consequently, the genetic models proposed ranging from bio-reduction to the influence of deep-mantle, strongly reduced fluids, are somewhat speculative. Here we present data for a unique Al0 flake protruding from the phlogopite matrix of a rock specimen collected from a desilicated pegmatite vein. The geologic setting suggests two processes that might have played a key role in the Al0 formation: (1) desilication of pegmatite, resulting in its Al residual enrichment; and (2) serpentinization of an ultramafic body, providing a strongly reduced front (H2 and hydrocarbons) toward the serpentinite/pegmatite contact. These processes have presumably led to the reduction of Al to Al0 at discrete sites of alumina-rich minerals.

If you understand what that means, then you’re a better scientist than we are. But for the laymen that just like to work with aluminum as a material, here’s the short version: the answer is yes, but only in extremely rare circumstances.

16 05, 2014

The World’s Most Stylish Aluminum House

2015-06-18T15:33:05+00:00May 16th, 2014|

Japan offers us plenty of technological innovations. At the same time, some of the quirkiest stuff in the world comes from Japan. This next aluminum-centric find is a little bit of both. Noted Japanese architect Terunobu Fujimori is known for his unusual and eccentric designs, and his latest design moves the single-home residence in a radical new metallic direction. From Archdaily:

Terunobu Fujimori’s Soft-Hard Aluminum House Opens Near Tokyo

A new private house designed by an exceptional Japanese architect, Terunobu Fujimori, has opened. The new building is located in a small provincial town near to Tokyo. Neighbored by typical one-family residences, the newcomer comes to the fore. Different, shiny and apparently soft metallic façade catches the visitor’s eye.

Yet the scale of the building is much smaller than one might expect. Every height, width and depth are accurately measured and left from a certain point of view spatially stingy: no waste is admissible here.

It’s difficult to fully describe the house in just a snippet. Do yourself a favor and go check out the full post at Archdaily’s site for photos and more information.

14 05, 2014

Report: The Dodge Ram Goes Aluminum

2017-01-26T23:37:29+00:00May 14th, 2014|

Get ready for more big American trucks made out of aluminum bodies. As we noted last week, auto manufacturers are sharing industry secrets about how to best use aluminum in a collective effort to lower the cost of materials and building. Chrysler (AKA the newly renamed Fiat Chrysler) has just thrown its hat into the ring with the popular Dodge Ram truck. From USA Today:

Fiat Chrysler, the new name for the combined Fiat and Chrysler Group, says it will redesign the popular Ram standard-duty pickup in 2017 and overhaul the heavy-duty line of pickups the following year.

And the 2017 Ram could have an aluminum body, like the 2015 Ford F-150 coming this year, FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne said.

In a question and answer session after the all-day future-product presentation, an analyst wondered how quickly FCA could respond if the aluminum-bodied F-150 is a big hit.

“We’ll make the deadline. We can do aluminum in ’17,” Marchionne said. “We have the technology in-house.”

With Fiat Chrysler now on board, that’s three big truck manufacturers (Ford and GM as well) using aluminum for their heavy-duty vehicles. Perhaps the next wave will see entry into the next heaviest segment: the SUV market.

1 05, 2014

Jaguar Shares Aluminum Secrets For Industry Benefit

2017-01-26T23:37:29+00:00May 1st, 2014|

It’s no secret that aluminum is becoming a go-to material for the auto industry. However, it’s uncharted territory for many manufacturers. Are individual companies keeping secrets? In fact, it’s actually the opposite — they’re sharing knowledge, lessons learned, and tricks of the trade when dealing with aluminum.

Why would they do this? It’s all about bringing the industry up to a new standard so that manufacturing costs decrease. From Automotive News:

Jaguar Land Rover would like the industry to adopt standards for raw materials and tools to assemble aluminum vehicles. These standards would cut production costs, and the changes won’t happen unless the big players get involved.

Mark White, Jaguar Land Rover’s chief technical specialist for aluminum, says automakers producing vehicles with aluminum — Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and soon Ford — each use a slightly different manufacturing system that includes various grades of aluminum and different rivets, glue, robots and measuring systems.

For example, Jaguar Land Rover will buy 353 million rivets this year to assemble all of its aluminum-bodied vehicles. When production of Ford’s aluminum F-150 begins in the fall, Ford will be buying about 2 billion rivets per year, assuming each F-150 has roughly the same number of rivets as an aluminum-bodied Range Rover.

Being an industry leader is a great thing but leading innovation can be expensive. By sharing knowledge, new innovations can become standard, allowing manufacturers to focus

17 04, 2014

Aluminum Repair Drives Evolving Body Shop Workload

2015-06-18T15:33:05+00:00April 17th, 2014|

More and more auto manufacturers are looking at aluminum as a significant portion of a vehicle’s body. But what happens after the car hits the road and requires repairs? Body shops are discovering that they need to quickly get with the times in order to keep up. From Body Shop Business:

Ever since Ford announced the release of its new F-150, aluminum seems to be the talk of the industry. Due to Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) standards requiring automakers to produce more fuel-efficient vehicles, the maker of America’s best-selling vehicle turned to military grade aluminum alloy to make it 750 lbs. lighter.

But some shop owners aren’t too enthusiastic about the change. For one, purchasing special equipment to properly repair aluminum is a significant investment – one that some speculate will offer little to no return.

“The biggest challenge facing repairers isn’t becoming capable in aluminum repair; it is the downward pressure being placed on repairs from an expectation that somehow we are able to do more, and invest more, for a lesser return,” said Aaron Schulenburg, executive director of the Society of Collision Repair Specialists (SCRS).

Dan Risley, president and executive director of the Automotive Service Association (ASA), estimates that less than 20 percent of the industry is ready to perform structural repairs on aluminum vehicles.

“I think a larger portion of the industry is capable of repairing non-structural aluminum parts, but they aren’t equipped to do it. Unfortunately, many of them aren’t properly equipped to do it.”

While the return on investment won’t just magically appear overnight, Risley says that the shops that make the investment in equipment and training will be the ones that survive in the end.

“It probably doesn’t make financial sense for [shops] to pursue it today if they don’t have the capital. However, it will start to even out as more mainstream vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, are manufactured. If you don’t do this at some point, you’re going to be blocked out from repairing those cars.”

And it’s not just the customers who will take their business elsewhere – shops will be facing increased scrutiny from insurance partners, too.

“Insurance companies are going to start identifying which shops are equipped and trained to repair [aluminum] cars,” said Risley. “So if you’re a shop that’s reliant upon direct repair referrals, quite frankly some of those referrals will never make it to your door because you can’t properly repair the vehicle.”

As with any industry, staying ahead of trends is the key to survival. As aluminum becomes more and more of an industry standard, the proper training and equipment for body shops will become a fact of life, not just a luxury.

10 04, 2014

Recycled Aluminum Saves Ford On Manufacturing Costs

2017-01-26T23:37:29+00:00April 10th, 2014|

Recycling is good for the planet. It can also be good for your wallet, at least when you lug in a bunch of cans to the recycling center — or, if you’re in the manufacturing business, when you want to recycle materials. That’s what Ford did when they started putting together the 2015 F-150, and their recycling processes actually shaved about 20% off of the final aluminum materials cost. From Car & Driver:

When Ford announced earlier this year that its new F-150 would employ aluminum for the majority of it’s construction, speculation that insurance, repair, and manufacturing costs would increase began to circulate almost immediately.

We investigated the first two concerns at the time, finding them to be less disconcerting than originally expected, and, judging by the majority of comments from our Backfires members, the enthusiast community agrees with us. But to be fair, it will be at least a year after the aluminum F-150 goes on sale before enough real-world data enters the information stream to completely understand the cost implications. Now, according to an article in Automotive News, Ford has found a way to improve efficiency on the manufacturing side via innovative recycling methods, saving the maker $124 per pickup truck as compared to traditional recycling methods, and cutting the per-truck cost of switching to aluminum to $750.

In short, the scrap from manufacturing gets recycled into usable aluminum for further manufacturing. It’s that type of innovation that is pushing the F-150 to the spotlight for both auto industry watchers and environmental pundits.

20 03, 2014

Mercedes Benz Goes Aluminum

2015-06-18T15:33:05+00:00March 20th, 2014|

The Ford F-150’s body made plenty of waves across the automotive industry as one of the first mainstream entries in the aluminum revolution. As everyday work trucks go, it doesn’t get much more all-American than that. But what about the world of luxury cars? Turns out Mercedes Benz is thinking of turning to aluminum as well. From World Car Fans:

 

Mercedes-Benz S-Class chief engineer Hermann-Joseph Storp has shed some light about the company’s next-gen flagship model.

 

Mercedes-Benz still hasn’t finished coming out with derivatives of the W222 S-Class but they have already started thinking about the next generation scheduled to come out before the end of the decade. During a press gathering this month at Geneva Motor Show, company chief engineer Hermann-Joseph Storp said Mercedes-Benz will focus on making the S-Class even greener and one way would be to use more aluminum and carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) in the car’s construction.

 

While the W221 S-Class used just over 10 percent of aluminum in its body, the new one is almost half made from aluminum.

 

With news like this, it’s clear that aluminum is becoming part of the standard across all spectrums of cars. If it’s good enough for the rugged duty of a Ford F-150 and the premium expectations of a Mercedes Bens, then it shouldn’t be long until you see it in everything in between.

5 03, 2014

Mobile Accessories Strike Gold With Aluminum

2015-06-18T15:33:05+00:00March 5th, 2014|

Aluminum is now the metal of choice for the car industry, but on a much smaller scale, it’s driving start-up Kickstarter campaigns to great levels of success. In Chicago, start-up companies are turning to our favorite metal to innovate new ideas for mobile device accessories. Thanks to a balance of design feasibility and sturdy manufacturing, it’s no wonder why aluminum has helped start-ups successfully pass the finish line on their Kickstarters. From the Chicago Tribune:

Apple, the maker of the iPhone, introduced machined aluminum designs in 2002 with the Power Mac G5, kicking off a love affair with the material that sends product designers into a frenzy.

“Machining allows a level of precision that is completely unheard of in this industry,” Jonathan Ive, Apple’s senior vice president of design, said in 2008.

We share details on three Chicago-area Kickstarter campaigns that recently passed their funding goals for iPhone and other mobile accessories made with aluminum.

They’re among thousands of companies that have benefited from the crowdfunding platform: Kickstarter announced on its site Monday that it had surpassed $1 billion in overall pledges. Those pledges involved more than 5.7 million backers and 57,000 successfully funded projects, according to the site.

To read more about these start-ups and their successful Kickstarters, visit the original article at the Chicago Tribune’s Blue Sky Innovation hub.

1 03, 2014

Steel Industry Reacts To Aluminum-Based Cars

2017-01-26T23:37:29+00:00March 1st, 2014|

Aluminum is gaining momentum. There’s no two ways about it. The most obvious sign is the probably the amount of mainstream attention the Ford F-150 has gotten since its unveiling (the second most-obvious sign is the volume of car-related posts on this blog). The steel industry used to be the main force behind automotive manufacturing, and with aluminum being recognized for both its strength and mass properties, the balance of power is shifting. From the New York Times:

The shift to aluminum is gaining momentum. Automakers are under increasing pressure to meet strict new fuel-economy standards by 2025, and their use of lighter aluminum is expected to double between 2008 and 2025, according to Ducker Worldwide, a research firm in Troy, Mich.

As a result, Severstal sees little choice but to move toward making advanced — and lighter — high-strength steel.

This year, it plans to make half a million tons more in its Dearborn facility than last year’s run of 2.1 million tons. Part of that demand will come from the F-150, whose frame has increased its use of high-strength steel from 23 percent to 77 percent, a change that will save up to 60 pounds, according to Ford.

“The F-150 is a big turning point,” said Andrew Lane, a metals analyst with Morningstar. “It’s a bold effort by Ford.”

Other steel makers are changing their ways, too. United States Steel has invested $400 million in a joint venture with Kobe Steel of Japan to make advanced high-strength steel in a Leipsic, Ohio, factory expected to produce 500,000 tons annually.

The consideration by carmakers of using more aluminum is actually opening up opportunities for producers of advanced steel, according to Jody Shaw, manager of automotive technical marketing at U.S. Steel.

“It’s those little changes that they’re willing to accept that’s creating an opportunity,” Mr. Shaw said.

While we’re obviously happy that aluminum is getting greater usage and recognition in the auto industry, the truth of the matter is that this will drive innovation in the steel industry – and the more industries innovate and reinvent themselves, the more the consumer wins.

19 02, 2014

GM Looks To Aluminum For Manufacturing Overhaul

2015-06-18T15:33:05+00:00February 19th, 2014|

Tesla was just the start. Ford was the next domino to fall. Now, America’s other big auto manufacturer is ready to follow suit. General Motors must think aluminum is a good idea, because a report from the Wall Street Journal states that the company wants most of their truck fleet to have aluminum bodies by 2018.

 

General Motors Co. GM +0.66%  is accelerating efforts to field a largely aluminum-bodied pickup truck by late 2018, under pressure from federal fuel efficiency standards and archrival Ford Motor Co. F +0.17%  , according to people familiar with the matter.

 

The No. 1 U.S. auto maker recently locked-in supply contracts with Alcoa Inc. AA +4.56% and Novelis Inc., which are now working to increase their aluminum sheet production to supply the next-generation GM pickup, the people said. Aluminum sheet for automotive bodies is in such high demand that companies need to order it years in advance.

 

The push to develop what the industry calls an “aluminum intensive” large pickup marks an apparent change of direction for GM, which has pursued smaller and lighter weight steel-bodied trucks.

 

The article goes on to state that Chrysler, the other member of Detroit’s Big Three, is looking to increase fuel efficiency by looking at other options: transmission mechanics, axle efficiency, and gasoline options. From our perspective, though, we’re inviting them to come take a look at the aluminum revolution — we think they’ll be pleased with what they find.

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