Roll-forming is a manufacturing process that is typically used to manufacture components such as construction panels, structural beams, garage doors, decking, and/or any other component having a formed profile. A roll-forming production process ordinarily operates at room temperature and may be implemented by using a roll-forming machine having work rolls in sequence that receive and […]
international patents
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Editors Note: Aluminum recycling into ingots and shape castings rates as one of the most successful “green” technologies in the world. The data gathered by the Aluminum Association and the International Aluminum Institute (IAI) are impressive, noting that 90-95% less energy is used in recycling aluminum than in primary production from ore and some 75% […]
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Editor’s Note: Much has changed in the automotive world since the last time that Light Metal Age spotlighted patents focused on the role of aluminum in electric vehicles (EVs). More and more automakers and suppliers are devoting their intellectual and financial resources toward EV production. As a result, automakers are displacing or at least minimizing […]
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Editor’s Note: As many Light Metal Age articles and items have noted, the friction stir welding (FSW) process, which joins aluminum components in the solid state, has been applied throughout the world in various industries that produce products for transportation, B&C, and industrial and consumer sectors. The November 2020 selection of patents covered a wide […]
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Editor’s Note: On August 3rd, 1888, Austrian chemist Karl Josef Bayer working in Saint Petersburg, Russia was granted German patent 43977 for his invention involving a process for the production of aluminum hydroxide. At the time, his invention was used by the textile industry that made use of aluminum hydroxide as a dye fixative. Other […]
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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 […]
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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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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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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 […]