Industry consolidation, lubricant concerns, and springback issues continued to test automakers and materials producers as they worked toward aluminum-intensive vehicles in the first decade of the twenty-first century.

Automakers and aluminum producers make headway in lightweight vehicle development in the 1990s and early 2000s.

When the first aluminum hood launched in 1977, the mills were delivering rectangular blanks separated by paper to protect the delicate outer surfaces. This article reviews important advances in aluminum forming and heat treating in the latter part of the twentieth century.

Field assisted sintering is a breakthrough technique for producing aluminum matrix composites that could replace high-density materials in a variety of applications.

The cost of electric power is the biggest expense involved in aluminum production. Proximity to economical power sources determined the location of major aluminum reduction plants. This article describes the development of the aluminum industry in the early part of the twentieth century.

Beyond weight savings, aluminum products offer corrosion resistance, weldability, and ease of maintenance for a wide range of marine vessels. Aluminum was recognized as a promising material for marine construction from the early days of the industry. The development of 5xxx alloys and large production capacity made aluminum use more technically and economically possible beginning in the 1950s. The variety of aluminum vessels ranges from small fishing boats and fast ferry catamarans to cruise ships and military vessels. All benefit from aluminum's relatively light weight, low maintenance costs, and easy repairability. Other benefits of using aluminum in marine applications include formability, corrosion resistance, and availability in various product forms.

Aluminum, one of the most widely used structural metals in modern industry, is produced in quantities exceeded only by steel. Its light weight, corrosion resistance, high strength after heat treatment, and global availability of bauxite ores make aluminum attractive for everything from kitchen utensils to spacecraft. This article describes early work to develop low-cost aluminum for industrial applications.

Alcoa’s aluminum monopoly continued throughout the 1920s and 1930s—a serious problem when World War II demands far exceeded production capacity. This articles reviews advances in aluminum technology during the war and the postwar period.

During the 20th century, the use of aluminum alloys helped the Allied Powers win World War II and made modern global air travel possible. Continuous improvements in engine technology, alloys, and manufacturing methods enabled the development of practical and efficient aircraft with varying passenger capacity and range capability. Conventional wrought aluminum alloys make up 70-80% of the weight of single-aisle airliners. Aluminum sheet, plate, forgings, extrusions, and castings all continue to be utilized in modern aircraft construction. This article explores a brief history of the special alloys, tempers, and product forms required to meet the unique challenges of flight.

This article describes Shear-Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE), an emerging extrusion technology being developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. One application of the ShAPE process is recycling post-consumer scrap without adding primary aluminum, which reduces embodied energy and carbon output. Scientists at PNNL won an R&D 100 Award in 2020 for their work in developing the ShAPE process.

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.

As demand for adherence to VDA standards increases, aluminum testing equipment keeps pace. The VDA, or Verband der Automobilindustrie, is the German association of the automotive industry. Typically, the VDA requirements are adaptations to existing ISO standards with more stringent requirements that aim to reduce variability between labs.

Ford begins to reassess its capacity to develop and launch an aluminum-intensive platform on its own. This article discusses the planning for the aluminum-bodied F-150 in the context of the difficult economic conditions that Ford and the rest of the industry were operating under during the 2008-2010 period.

News about ASM members, chapters, events, awards, conferences, affiliates, and other society activities. Topics include: 2012 ASM Awards Recipients and volunteer profile for Beth Armstrong, Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

When the Big Three automakers started thinking about replacing steel sheet with aluminum, they found an industry vastly different from the Alcoa-dominated world of the pre-war era. This article describes developments from the period after World War II thorough the early 1970s.

Members of the Center for Heat Treating Excellence are finding creative ways to bring awareness to careers in heat treating in order to recruit and retain top-notch talent.

The conclusion of this article series reviews the lasting impact of Ford’s extensive use of aluminum on some of its most popular, high-volume vehicles. It addresses future prospects for aluminum auto body sheet (ABS) production and challenges associated with electric vehicle development.

This article reports on the development of additive friction stir deposition techniques that use secondary feedstocks such as machine chips and damaged components to make in-field repairs at the point of need. The focus of the initial research was aluminum alloys. Preliminary studies show significant promise for the adaptation of these techniques to hard alloys including steel castings, wrought high strength steels, and titanium alloys.

Aluminum components with refined microstructures produced by high pressure die casting enable manufacturers to gain energy savings via shorter production cycles—if casting and tempering parameters are optimized. This article reports on research results indicating it is possible to increase hardness of hypereutectic Al-Si alloys by optimizing the water quenching rate and duration of room temperature hold, and producing castings with finer microstructures.

Molybdenum aluminum boride (MAB) phases have layered nanolaminate structures, suiting them for potential use in cutting tools, leading edges for hypersonic vehicles, high-temperature electrodes, and other demanding applications. This case study demonstrates a process for the production of MoAlB particulates and their incorporation in polymer-matrix composites.