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A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | O C T O B E R 2 0 1 6
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TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT
COLLABORATIVE APPROACH
TACKLES ALUMINUM
LIGHTWEIGHTING CHALLENGES
The National Research Council of Canada has teamed up with industrial partners
to investigate the challenges of aluminum lightweighting
—
and their systematic
approach is generating impressive results.
The Aluminium Technology Centre in Saguenay, Quebec, Canada.
A
s demand for lightweight com-
ponents continues to grow, orga-
nizations around the globe are
developing innovative steel, aluminum,
and composite solutions. Each of these
solutions must meet rigorous techni-
cal specifications while remaining cost
effective. The National Research Council
of Canada (NRC) is no exception to this
trend, but its approach includes part-
ners in order to tackle the challenges
of lightweighting using aluminum. The
group’s collaborative method is unique
and is generating impressive results.
The NRC first became involved
in aluminum research and develop-
ment because Canada is the world’s
third largest aluminum producer and
the center hoped to capitalize on this
capability to transform manufacturing.
The Aluminum Valley, a 500-km region
around Saguenay, Québec, is the coun-
try’s hotbed for primary and secondary
enterprises in this sector. It is host to Rio
Tinto and boasts 42 finished product
manufacturers and four semi-finished
ones, seven recycling organizations,
and 44 equipment suppliers and spe-
cialized service providers. In 2000,
the Canadian government decided to
invest in the NRC Aluminum Technol-
ogy Center at the heart of this cluster.
The state-of-the-art building hous-
es approximately 40 NRC experts on
the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi
(UQAC) campus, in close proximity to
the UQAC Centre for Aluminum Re-
search, the province of Quebec’s Cen-
tre for Aluminum R&D, and Rio Tinto’s
Research Arvida Centre. NRC supports
the industry by addressing the techni-
cal challenges related to developing
lightweight aluminum components
and providing innovative R&D services
and solutions not available elsewhere.
In 2013, the Council launched
Light-
weighting of Ground Transportation Ve-
hicles (LGTV)
activities, which brought
together experts from the Aluminum
Technology Center as well as teams
from across NRC. LGTV assists Canadian
and international companies develop-
ing aluminum lightweighting solutions
for cars, trucks, buses, and railcars.
“By focusing on the challenges of
integrating aluminum in a new gener-
ation of vehicles, we’ve been able to
more rapidly deepen our knowledge
base in aluminum applications for the
transportation sector, while building
closer ties with industry and aligning
our efforts with the needs of our cli-
ents,” says LGTV leader Mélissa Després.
The team quickly realized that in terms
of aluminum components, the most
pressing challenges were not unique
to any given company, and that major
gains could be made if resources and
solutions were pooled together.
ALTec was born out of this solution
and is the brainchild of senior project
manager Marie-Christine Gagnon. It