New automotive applications for aluminum in North America, Europe and Asia were on display in large numbers at the SAE 2001 World Congress in Detroit earlier this month. Parts-manufacturing companies played a big role in the exhibits, hawking their wares and capabilities to anyone willing to listen. The aluminum products they displayed ranged from engine blocks and heads, transmission cases, suspension control arms, steering knuckles, wheels and structural (frame) parts made as castings, to body panels, powertrain components, luggage racks, tubing, cooling system parts, driveshafts, seat frame parts and load floors made as stampings, extrusions and forgings.

There seemed to be more aluminum parts than normal in the exhibits at the Society of Automotive Engineers' four-day event. That is not to say that parts made of steel, iron, powder metals, magnesium and other materials were hard to find--quite the contrary, those materials were well represented. But aluminum parts were showcased in large numbers by exhibitors from all over the world.

Aluminum currently is on the ground floor in a lot of applications where there is room for growth, and the exhibitors evidently felt this was a good time to show what they can do with the light metal. The global aluminum industry as a whole seems to be focusing on the opportunities for doing more business in the auto market, and doing so in a united way rather than as a host of individual companies.

Among the thousands of people attending the SAE show were top officials of the Aluminum Association, Washington, and the European Aluminium Association (EAA). J. Stephen Larkin, president of the Washington-based trade group, and Richard L. Klimisch, vice president, made the rounds with Patrick de Schrynmakers, secretary general of the European association, and KarlHeinz von Zengen, EAA automotive market manager.

"Our global effort is working, and we're all pleased about that," Larkin said in an interview. "The industry is making progress in its efforts to get aluminum accepted for more and more applications in cars and trucks globally, and the willingness of the industry's participants--no matter where they're located--to exchange information and work together is one of the biggest reasons for that."

Worldwide, aluminum producers and their trade association representatives have taken some criticism over the years for not working together to remove the obstacles to using aluminum in car and truck applications dominated by other materials. The establishment of standardized test procedures in formability, surface characteristics and certain other areas was thought to have been neglected for too long, and the automakers said so. There also was a need for more cooperative research and development work in technical areas involving improved metal production, parts forming, assembling, handling, repairing and recycling methods.

About a year and a half ago, nine national aluminum trade associations on six continents decided to combine their efforts to tackle some of those matters and raise the level of acceptance of their metal in cars and trucks. The principal idea was to cooperate in all areas, from research to manufacturing to promotion, in order to expand the applications of aluminum sheet, casting, extrusion and forging alloys in vehicles, which represent the global aluminum industry's largest market.

Larkin said at that time that the nine organizations intended to keep current with each other on breaking issues and to enhance one another's efforts by exchanging information on their individual national programs. At this month's SAE World Congress, Larkin and Schrynmakers both said that progress was being made on numerous issues of importance internationally, demonstrating the power of cooperation. "We're all mindful of the fact that we have to create ways to make aluminum catch on in those applications where it has not been before, or where its position is weak," Schrynmakers said. "The more people involved in this effort, the better things are likely to go."

Von Zengen, whose former employer, Audi AG, was the first automaker in the world to build aluminum body/frame cars in volume, said that aluminum had made big strides in Europe primarily because the need for lightweighting was particularly strong there. "Fuel prices are higher there than in this country, and good fuel economy is important to most vehicle owners," he said. Von Zengen noted that Audi was "getting better at designing aluminum cars cost effectively as it gains more and more experience."

Applications for aluminum also have been growing significantly year after year in North American-built cars and trucks, and Klimisch--who heads up the Aluminum Association's Auto and Light Truck Group--said that all research projects being carried out by the relatively new Auto Aluminum Alliance were making progress. The alliance, a partnership among the Big Three U.S. automakers and a number of aluminum companies, is working on overcoming such technical challenges as the development of hydroforming for aluminum parts; producing tailored aluminum blanks economically; and sorting aluminum scrap by alloy for recycling.