NEW YORK -- The need for weight reduction in automobiles, for reasons ranging from accommodating a growing list of accessories going into increasingly larger and heavier vehicles to environmental concerns, are creating opportunities for aluminum in many forms: castings, sheet and extrusions, to name a few.

A relative newcomer in the field--semisolid metal (SSM) technology--is expected to spur aluminum's growth in passenger vehicles in the near term, attendees at a two-day SSM conference in Wheeling, W.Va., were told.
Michel Garat, foundry development manager for Paris-based Aluminium Pechiney, told the conference, hosted by Ormet Corp., that 1999-2001 "should see the start-up of large-volume SSM production of suspension parts, engine brackets" and other components. and that "the appearance of high-pressure injection gasoline engines should also boost (SSM) use."

Moreover, the need for weight reduction generated by the increase in equipment being placed in passenger vehicles and by environmental concern-inspired legislation was playing an important role, according to John Summerill, laboratory manager for British master brake cylinder manufacturer Lucas Varity. He said that the use of aluminum in the average passenger car had doubled since the mid-1980s and the trend line should rise steeply over the next several years.

Ray Donahue, director of materials engineering for Mercury Marine, told the conference that SSM had permitted the beneficial redesign of swivel brackets for outboard motors that yielded savings in manufacturing costs due to decreased cycle time, increased die life and other factors that more than offset the higher cost of the feedstock.
Ormet said that SSM technology was breaking out of a three-year period of stagnation and its weight-saving potential extended from passenger vehicles to bicycles, marine equipment and golf clubs.

Ormet in 1998 successfully resisted an SSM patent infringement lawsuit pressed by the former Alumax Inc. The suit was dropped a few weeks before Alumax was bought by Alcoa Inc.