May/June_AMP_Digital

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 | M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 8 2 2 *Member of ASM International AUTOMOTIVE ALUMINUM—PART 1 THE EARLY DAYS: 1899-1948 The early days of aluminum development occurred between 1886 and 1948, when the aluminum and automotive industries were both new and undergoing rapid changes in technology and scales of production. Laurent Chappuis,* Light Metal Consultants LLC, Grosse Ile, Mich. Robert Sanders,* Novelis Inc., Atlanta T he starting point in the automotive aluminumstory is 1899, when from a patent point of view, aluminum and the automobile were both 13 years old. Charles Martin Hall in the U.S. and Paul L.T. Héroult in France each submit- ted patent applications for the modern aluminum electrolysis process in 1886, while Carl Friedrich Benz in Germany submitted a patent for a gasoline motor powered vehicle. At the time, France was quick- ly becoming the automobile center of the world due to enthusiasm fueled by spectacular long distance races that spurred incredible technical advances. For example, competitors in the 1899 Tour de France covered 2350 km (1460 miles) at an average speed of 51.3 km/h (31.9 miles/hour) in eight days, while only five years earlier, it took three days to cover 126 km (78 miles). In the U.S., auto racing was also the best way to at- tract attention. For example, the first closed circuit race took place in 1899 at the Branford Park horse track in New Haven, Connecticut. At the 1899 Berlin International Motor Wagon Exhibition, Dürkopp, an Austrian company diver- sifying into the new automobile busi- ness, introduced a small lightweight aluminum bodied sports car. The com- pany was among more than 100 exhib- itors representing 36 manufacturers of vehicles with internal combustion en- gines and 12 with electrical propulsion. Thirteen of 20 international exhibi- tors were from France. That same year, Henry Ford incorporated the Detroit Automobile Company. On both continents, early devel- opment of the aluminum industry was hampered by a lack of interest in pure aluminum. In 1886, the cost of alumi- numwas close to that of a preciousmet- al, selling at prices near silver. By 1899, it had dropped tenfold [2] , due to the new processingmethod and availability of plentiful, affordable electricity. How- ever, even with the wide availability and attractive price, aluminum was still a metal without a market. The Pittsburgh Reduction Company (PRC), the compa- ny cofounded by Charles Hall in 1888, became actively engaged in market de- velopment. Its first commercial push was developing products such as elec- trical conductors, horseshoes, and tea kettles, which could be made of com- mercially pure aluminum. Paradoxical- ly, some of PRC’s biggest customers in the early years were steelmaking com- panies that discovered the use of alu- minum as a deoxidizer in refining steel. Without a research department at PRC, there was no serious alloy devel- opment for sheet products. PRC rolled its first aluminum sheet in 1892 and tried using it to make cooking utensils, but it was unable to form aluminum From left, aluminumpioneers Charles Martin Hall and Paul L.T. Héroult, and automotive pioneer Carl Friedrich Benz. As demand for aluminum grew, the Pittsburgh Reduction Company moved its operations fromPittsburgh to nearby New Kensington, Pa., where it scaled up to produce aluminum ingots and fabricat- ed aluminumproducts. Courtesy of alcoa.com .