PITTSBURGH – Alcoa has announced that its “Alcoa 951” pre-treatment bonding technology has been licensed to Chemetall in an exclusive distribution agreement.
The treatment is an enabler for adhesive bonding of automotive structures and could lead to cars being made with more aluminum parts.
It is applied to surfaces with an immersion or spray application, wher the organic components bond with oxides on the metal surface.
The molecular structure chemically binds aluminum oxide with one end, and adhesive with the other, creating a link at the molecular level and making durable joints for automotive structures.
The technology can be used for aluminum sheet, extrusion and casting suppliers in the automotive industry.
Aluminum is currently the second-most-used material to produce cars and could double in use by 2025 according to automotive OEMs (original equipment manufacturers.
As OEMs work to continue to make cars more fuel efficient, many are expanding aluminum use from heat exchangers, wheels, drive shafts, engine blocks, hoods and deck lids to developing aluminum intensive vehicles (AIVs) by converting the body in white, or body structure, to aluminum.
“The use of this technology is helping to enable greater use of aluminum throughout the industry and helping make mass-produced aluminum-intensive vehicles possible,” stated Kay Meggers, Executive Vice President and Group President of Alcoa Global Rolled Products.
“This, in turn, will drive lighter vehicle weights and enable the integration of sheet, extrusions, and castings to ultimately improve fuel efficiency,” said Dr. Raymond Kilmer, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Alcoa.
Alcoa 951 technology is being incorporated into the $300 million automotive expansion underway at the company’s Davenport (Iowa) Works facility. It is scheduled for completion by the end of 2013.
Chemetall is a German-based company that is one of world’s largest suppliers of surface treatments to the automotive industry. They have over 40 branches worldwide.
