Editor’s Note: Although the focused patent surveys in Light Metal Age have generally covered select aluminum technologies, magnesium alloy technology has generally been sidelined. Nevertheless, magnesium is a major alloying master alloy in aluminum casthouse production and critical to the reduction of light metals, such as titanium and beryllium. Therefore, this patent survey aims to […]
Eric Westlund
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Resistance spot welding (RSW), a technology that’s at least 100 years old, has been used by the automotive industry almost exclusively for joining steel sheet without using filler material or flux. The process utilizes shaped copper alloy electrodes, typically water cooled, to apply heat and pressure to pass electric current through stacked up sheets to […]
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Posted in:
December 2020
Cover Teammates Nick Harris, electrical automation technician (left), and Caleb Nunley, maintenance operator (right), enthusiastically display the first production coil from JW Aluminum’s new continuous casting and rolling operation in Goose Creek, SC. See story on page 6. Articles JW Aluminum Launches Advanced Continuous Casting and Rolling Facility: Collaboration Ensures Success Despite Challenges By Andrea […]
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Editor’s Note: As many articles have appeared in Light Metal Age (both in the magazine and online) describing and following the friction stir welding (FSW) process, especially its application in joining aluminum alloys in various forms and tempers, readers should be familiar with its advantages. In the FSW process, aluminum components are joined in the solid […]
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Editor’s Note: Although the Aluminum Association has certified hundreds of international aluminum alloys in each of the wrought and cast categories, aluminum metallurgists keep adding new recipes to meet the challenges required in their products, which span a range of applications—transportation, B&C, packaging, and various industrial and consumer products. The focused patent search presented hereafter reviews […]
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Posted in:
October 2020
Cover Automakers are moving deeper into the development of electric vehicles. For example, for the first time ever Ford introduced a one-off Mustang Cobra Jet factory drag racer with all-electric propulsion in order to demonstrate the capabilities of electric powertrains. This is one of several models the company has developed with electric and hybrid electric […]
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Complimenting our September 2019 International Patent Calendar (which focused mostly on methods of anodizing aluminum), this month’s collection of patents focuses on special applications of anodized aluminum surfaces. The uniqueness of anodized aluminum oxide coatings in terms of their chemical, physical, and mechanical properties has resulted in many innovations in various industrial and scientific fields, […]
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The aluminum casthouse is where aluminum wrought processing and shape casting begins, and there are many casthouse functions to consider. Scrap sorting, decoating of organic coatings on scrap, remelting, alloying, melt purification by refining and degassing, grain refining, melt transfer to casting station, casting by direct chill or other means, ingot heat treatment, and dross […]