By Dr. Anne Deacon Juhl, AluConsult and AnodizingSchool. In many industries, companies often resort to paint instead of color anodized products due to the prevalent issue of color variation and lower costs. This practice poses two significant problems. First, painted surfaces are prone to chipping and peeling, rendering them less durable compared to anodized finishes. […]
By Praveen Hewage, Alumex PLC, and Craig Werner, Werner Extrusion Solutions LLC. The die correction process relies heavily on input parameters of various dimensions. It follows a sophisticated and experience-based approach that requires a high level of technical understanding and manual skill (which was discussed in the first article in this series, published in Light […]
By Mark Butterfield, Metal Exchange Corporation. Editor’s Note: This is the fourth in a series of six articles in which the author will explore opportunities for the aluminum extrusion industry in the automotive market. The series will specifically address the supply chain, raw material supply, extrusion, fabrication, and assembly. Demand for an Expanding Value Stream […]
Hydro partnered with the Catholic University of America (CUA) to reconstruct the iconic geodesic dome designed by famed architect, inventor, and futurist, Buckminster Fuller, inside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The dome is constructed with extruded aluminum structural members made from Hydro CIRCAL, the company’s certified aluminum product, which contains at least 75% […]
By Andrea Svendsen, Managing Editor. Hydro successfully produced a batch of aluminum billet using green hydrogen as an energy source. Performed at the company’s extrusion plant in Navarra, Spain, the trial was conducted in collaboration with Hydro Havrand, Hydro’s green hydrogen company, and Fives, an industrial engineering group with expertise in hydrogen burner technology. According […]
By Andrew Halonen, Mayflower Consulting LLC. Material developers and producers are feeling global pressure to optimize their respective businesses, especially as communications get easier and as once-difficult tasks are optimized and commoditized by automation technologies. Gone are the days that a midwestern forging producer would automatically have a competitive advantage with an automotive OEM over […]
Kingston Metals & Materials Inc. (KM&M-Aluminum) started up a new aluminum facility in Kingston, ON, Canada (Figure 1). The company focuses on supporting the development of specialty aluminum alloys, products, and processes by providing equipment, analysis, and decades of expertise in one central operation. With the launch of this new facility, KM&M is now the […]
By Mark Butterfield, Metal Exchange Corporation. Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of six articles (available in the print magazine) in which the author will explore opportunities for the aluminum extrusion industry in the automotive market. The series will specifically address the supply chain, raw material supply, extrusion, fabrication, and assembly. With […]
By Alicia Hartlieb and Martin Hartlieb, Viami International Inc. Numerous studies, especially from Ducker-Carlisle, have shown that aluminum usage in light vehicles has been growing for decades, having surpassed 500 lbs (227 kg) per light vehicle in North America and 396 lbs (180 kg) per vehicle in Europe. Until now, castings have been the predominant […]
