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 […]
Joseph C. Benedyk
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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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By Joseph C. Benedyk, Editor. In the October 2016 issue of Light Metal Age, J. Gilbert Kaufman’s book on the fire resistance of aluminum and its alloys was reviewed. The book offered substantial documentation and evaluation of the properties of aluminum and its alloys in various structural product forms upon fire exposure in applications such […]
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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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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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Author: Christian Vargel Publisher: Elsevier Science (2020) Review by Joseph C. Benedyk, Editor In a paradoxical sense, corrosion of aluminum should be a non-issue to many users of aluminum and its alloys, as it is normally considered to be protected by a passive oxide coating that resists corrosion under many conditions. As Christian Vargel shows […]
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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 […]
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Experienced welders will tell you that, compared to welding steel, welding aluminum and its alloys is not difficult but different. Steel, being one of the common construction materials, most welders and myself included started by learning how to weld steel. As aluminum has especially gained market share in transportation, welding aluminum is challenged in various […]
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Editor’s Note: Various aspects of aluminum casthouse technology appear in almost every issue of Light Metal Age, no doubt because it is the first step and an important link in the wrought aluminum processing chain required for subsequent downstream processing and production of quality product. With no exception, the international patent survey presented here focuses […]