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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 | J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 1 2 4 F ollowing board approval in June 2010, Ford could now release fund- ing toupgrade the stamping facilities and formalize the agreement supporting the new heat treat lines at Novelis Oswe- go and Alcoa Davenport. These hundreds of millions of dollars represented the ul- timate vote of confidence for a project that still existed mostly in Excel spread- sheets. The venture was now entering the development phase, and Ford could begin assembling the teams that would spend the next 18 months designing the truck and the facilities to produce it. The board would then review the project one more time and authorize funding for the execution phase covering the production tooling and the fleet of verification pro- totypes. If everything went according to plan, the launch phase would follow. MANUFACTURING CAPABILITY Testing of Ford’s initial F-150 pro- totype, dubbed X0, had been success- fully completed and by July 2010, resis- tance spot welding had been ruled out as the main point joining method in fa- vor of self-piercing rivets (Fig. 1). A week later, the program passed its next gate- way and clay development started in earnest in the studio. Planning volumes were set, the general engineering con- cept was firming up, and a preliminary bill of material was assembled for the stamped parts. For both the aluminum companies and Ford, the key to success was manu- facturing capability. Due to two decades of aluminum-intensive vehicle devel- opment and the launch of the Jaguar products, Ford felt reasonably well pre- pared. In addition, the company was still making good use of the collabora- tion agreement with Jaguar Land Rov- er that ran through mid-2011. For the aluminum companies, the challenge stemmed from Ford’s decision to use their internally developed high-speed heat treatment (post formed heat treatment, or PFHT, designated as T82 temper) to transform 6111 into a high- strength structural alloy. While both companies were familiar with the alloy as a thin gauge auto body sheet (ABS) product, Ford was calling for thick- nesses up to 4 mm. The preliminary AUTOMOTIVE ALUMINUM—PART XI They Made it Look Easy Ford’s aluminum F-150 venture was now entering the development phase, with teams in place that would spend the next 18 months designing both the truck and the facilities to produce it. Laurent Chappuis,* Light Metal Consultants LLC, Grosse Ile, Michigan Robert Sanders,* Novelis Inc., Atlanta *Member of ASM International Fig. 1 — From left, self-piercing rivets and typical cross section of a joint. Courtesy of Stanley Engineered Fastening.