September_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 | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 9 2 5 *Member of ASM International AUTOMOTIVE ALUMINUM—PART VIII BABY STEPS TOWARD HIGH VOLUME PRODUCTION OF BODY STRUCTURES Automakers and aluminum producers make headway in lightweight vehicle development. Laurent Chappuis,* Light Metal Consultants LLC, Grosse Ile, Michigan Robert Sanders,* Novelis Inc., Atlanta B y the end of 1993, Ford’s alumi- num intensive vehicle (AIV) proj- ect had achieved its goal: Alcan’s aluminum vehicle technology (AVT) was now considered off-the-shelf. And yet, Alcan was realizing that Ford was not any closer to putting an AIV into its product lineup. The big push at Ford was on closures and significant resourc- es were mobilized to launch the new technology. At least Alcan was now on Ford’s suppliers list and metal orders were starting to come in, with high-vol- ume programs like the Crown Victoria and Grand Marquis, as well as the Tau- rus and Sable, signing on to aluminum trunk lids. Ford’s 1996 Crown Victoria featuring an aluminum trunk lid. Courtesy of purplewave.com. Reynolds Metals Company (RMC) should have been the supplier, but its McCook facility had fallen victim to painful quality issues caused by their extremely long heat treat oven and a cold mill in dire need of an upgrade. Worse yet, the launch of 6111—the new auto body sheet (ABS) alloy—was tak- ing place just as the plant was facing a major restructuring that resulted in lay- offs of 800 of its 1200 workers in Janu- ary 1994. As RMC was faltering, Alcan was offered the chance to step in and it succeeded under rather rushed con- ditions. But it was hoods, not trunk lids, that were the lion’s share of the ABS volume, so that Alcan still had less than one third of Alcoa’s share of the Ford business. Froman outsider’s viewpoint, Ford was in no hurry to book a high-volume AIV. Behind the scenes however, tech- nology development was continuing. The lack of a production platform could have meant the disbanding of Ford’s cross-functional aluminumteam. Fortu- nately, the Department of Energy under the new Clinton Administration decided to target fuel economy. In 1993, it set up a government/industry program called “Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles” (PNGV), with the aim of tri- pling fuel efficiency within 10 years by using lightweight body structures, new