Shapes Magazine 2015 #2 English
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Transcript of Shapes Magazine 2015 #2 English
NEWS ON INNOVATIVE ALUMINIUM SOLUTIONS FROM THE SAPA GROUP 2:2015
Thegolden
age ofAmerican
cars
LIGHT TRANSPORTTRAINS, TRUCKS AND SHIPS SLIM DOWN
COOL CARS THE METAL OF
CHOICE IN INDIA
By reducing weight and cutting emissions,
U.S. automakers are transforming the way
they make cars
aluminium
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Editorial Contents
Shapes is the Sapa Group’s customer magazine. It is published twice a year in 18 language editions.
Editor-in-chief: Kevin Widlic, [email protected] Editorial Assistant: Eva Ekselius,
[email protected] Managing Editor: Ylva Carlsson Art Director: Johan Nohr
Language coordination: Inger Finell Production: Appelberg Publishing Group Printing: V-TAB
Changes of address: Inform your contact person at Sapa or Corporate Communications at
[email protected] Shapes is also available at www.sapagroup.com
Copyright © Sapa AS 2015 - Sapa's product names in this magazine are all trademarks of Sapa Group.
04Pedal to the metalAluminium is becoming more popular in different modes of mass transportation, from trucks to buses to trains.
08Lighter and brighterThe U.S. automotive industry is looking for more light-weighting material to improve fuel economy.
16Seeking balanceRavi Chidambar, CEO of Tata Toyo in India, is passionate about heat exchangers – and he looks for material with good thermal conductivity.
20Modern visualization3D software makes it possible to create a mock-up of a building or a room in a snap, right in the client’s home.
MORE TO READ
How it works 03 · Role Model 07 · The Picture 12 News 14 · Trends 19 · Green Solutions 22
Momentum is growingA TTITUDES TOWARD ALUMINIUM
have changed in the United States.
After long being associated with
aluminium cans and house siding,
manufacturers and consumers are now realizing
the full potential of aluminium.
Our customers are looking at the trends in
their businesses, and they are asking us for help
using aluminium in their products. Designing
with extrusions is the new normal. It is an exciting
change I am seeing again and again in my role as
head of Sapa’s extrusion team in the Americas.
Companies like Utility Trailer and General
Truck Body are using aluminium to reduce weight
and extend the life of their trailers. Maxon, one of
the largest manufacturers of liftgates for trucks,
says its customers love that aluminium looks good
and won’t rust. With its amazing signs, Sign
Resource uses aluminium’s versatility as a selling
point. These are the kinds of customers who
are bringing aluminium to the forefront
of manufacturing today.
Strong, lightweight and sustain-
able aluminium is changing the world
around us. Think about how
aluminium can help your busi-
ness. There is value in choosing
sustainable and innovative alu-
minium solutions.
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PATRICK LAWLORExecutive vice president Sapa Extrusion Americas
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Shapes is the Sapa
Editor-in-chief:
eva.ekselius@sa
Language coord
Changes of add
info@sapagroup
Copyright © Sapa Atrademarks of Sapa
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How it worksHow it works
ALUMINIUM STRIP PASSES through, with fast speed, a series of rollers gradually shaping the strip into a tube. At the point of welding, the strip edges are heated by high-frequency induction heating. The strip edges are brought together with a set of rollers, which squeezes the ends of the strip material together. Final shape and toleranc-es are achieved by sets of calibration rollers, before the tubes are cut to length.
Welded tubing offers a limited wall-thick-ness variation, compared with extrusion, and makes it possible to tailor properties on core alloy as well as on both the inside and outside of the tube by using clad strip material. In addition, surface patterns can be embossed on the strip material.
ILLUSTRATION PETR KOLLARČÍK
Welding aluminium tubes
HF (High Frequency) Induction Heating
Possible embossing
Forming rolls
Welding rolls
Sizing/Calibration rolls
Round tubes
B-type flat oval tubes Oval tubes Rectangular tubes
All sort of shapes are possible.
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Mass Transportation
Finding aluminium in heavy vehicles and other modes of mass transportation is becoming easier. All you have to do is look.TEXT KEVIN WIDLIC PHOTO RICOWDE/GETTY IMAGES
Lean, green and on the move
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A LFRED NOBEL, whose fortune was used to
establish the Nobel Prizes, may have been the
first to use aluminium in sea transport, with the
steam passenger boat Le Migron. Built for Nobel
in 1891, the eight-passenger boat was partially
made of aluminium. He had found a metal that could provide
many practical advantages.
In addition to the marine industry, mass transportation as
a segment includes trucks and other heavy vehicles, buses and
trains. Granted, the growing use of aluminium in buildings and
automotive applications has created a lot of buzz, but the surge
in usage in mass transportation is equally exciting. Thanks to
urbanization, this is not likely to change.
The International Energy Association (IEA) says that over
the next four decades, global demand for transport is expected
to double from 2010 levels.
“As the share of the world’s population living in cities grows
to nearly 70 percent by 2050 and energy consumption for trans-
port in cities is expected to double, the need for efficient, safe and
high-capacity transport solutions will become more acute,” says
Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the IEA.
Last year, the International Union of Railways (UIC), a
global organization with 240 members, unveiled an ambitious
initiative at the UN’s Climate Summit in New York. UIC Direc-
tor General Jean-Pierre Loubinoux presented goals calling for
substantial reductions in energy consumption and greenhouse
gas emissions from train operations, and a more sustainable
balance of transportation modes.
He says the global rail sector is going to meet the targets by
following several key drivers, which include the improvement
of load factors and procurement of more efficient trains, or roll-
ing stock.
Main segmentsMass transportation includes the movement of people as well as goods. The main market segments are:
G Trucks G Trailers G Trains (rolling stock) G Marine
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“Climate change is the defining issue of our
times,” says Loubinoux. “Rail offers an impor-
tant part of the solution because of its very low
carbon intensity.”
As with rail transport, aluminium helps
reduce greenhouse gas emissions from road
transport in two ways. First, the metal in-
creases load capacity, thereby improving
transport performance and allowing more
goods to be carried per trip. Second, it lowers
the overall weight of the vehicle and reduces
fuel consumption per mile.
CLASS 8 TRUCKS on average use more than
500 kilograms of aluminium. The metal is
used primarily in interior and exterior appli-
cations, trailer structure, cabs and other criti-
cal components. Truck production is expected
to increase by 7 percent in 2015, mainly in Asia
and North America, from the nearly 3 million
units produced in 2014.
“Truck bodies are being built more or less
in the same way as they were in the 1950s,”
says Dana Pearce, general manager of General
Truck Body Inc. in Montebello, California.
“So our challenge has been to produce them
as cost-effectively as possible and to get the
bodies to last longer. This is where aluminium
comes in. The quality of the aluminium has
gotten better. We are on a pretty good wave
right now.”
The extensive use of aluminium in ship-
building did not begin until the 1960s, when
the price of the metal became more competi-
tive. Now in 2015, yachts and cruise ships are
getting bigger, defense vessels and passenger
ferries smaller and faster – and aluminium
is growing throughout, from car decks to so-
called superstructures.
As with the other modes of mass transpor-
tation, the chief advantage of aluminium over
steel in shipbuilding is in its low weight, along
with strength and high ductility. Moreover, the
alloys currently used in shipbuilding corrode
100 times more slowly than steel, according to
ISO 9223:2012.
Four years after the construction of Nobel’s
passenger boat, a vessel called Defender sailed to
victory in one of the most prestigious regattas,
the America’s Cup. The boat was built with alu-
minium. But back then, the cost of the light metal
was 35 times more than the cost of steel.
Maxon is the world’s largest single-brand manu-facturer of liftgates for trucks. Its customers are becoming as interested in aluminium’s looks as in its light weight.
Maxon manufactures liftgates for light-, me-dium- and heavy-duty trucks. The California-based company says that these tend to be stored flush against the doors of trucks or trailers, and that they often serve as the actual door or tailgate to the vehicles.
Aluminium is used most frequently in the plat-forms for Maxon’s liftgates, often at the expense of steel, says purchasing supervisor Virginia Tejeda. “It is because of rust,” she says.
Penske and Ryder, two of the largest truck and trailer companies in the United States, are leading the change. “They want the platform to look pret-ty,” Tejeda says. “They don’t want to see rust, and they don’t want their customers to see rust. They want aluminium, because it looks better longer.”
‘They don’t want to see rust’
mass transportation
Collins Manufacturing Company is a distribu-tor of Maxon liftgates.
Sapa’s Ralph Gideon and Virginia Tejeda of Maxon discuss the use of aluminium in Maxon’s liftgates for U.S. truck and trailer companies.
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TEXT ANNA MCQUEEN PHOTO MIGUEL JELLISS
A light on the horizon
MIRIAM URIA WAS born in Vitoria, northern
Spain, studied engineering at university and
did her postgraduate training in management.
“I guess you might say I’m a people person, so
management ended up being the best fit for me,
although having an engineering background cer-
tainly helps in my job,” she explains.
As supply chain director for Sapa's building
systems business in Iberia, she has to deal with
customer sales, from order to delivery, ensur-
ing customer satisfaction at every step along the
way. She manages the warehouses in Iberia and
oversees production activities including painting,
wood effect and assembly. She is also responsible
for environment, health and safety, which is a key
concern for Sapa.
“The last few years have been extremely tough
in Spain and Portugal,” Uria explains. “Since the
crash in 2008 we have had to restructure the com-
pany year after year, and that’s never a fun job to
do. And at the same time as you’re laying people
off, you have to keep the remaining team moti-
vated and focused on the future.”
For Uria, the key to restructuring is respect.
“It’s a must when you’re handling layoffs, which
are very distressing for all concerned but particu-
larly for the soon-to-be ex-employee. Of course,
there are legal obligations, but it’s critical for me
to be kind and to give people the time they need to
take in the situation.“
Uria is hopeful that things have now reached
rock bottom, which means the only way is up.
“We’re at a stage where the size of the company
in Spain and Portugal is adapted to the demands
of the market, and in the first quarter of 2015 we
finally began growing again,” she says.
Spain and Portugal have seen some
challenging years lately. Miriam Uria
thinks the situation has now touched
bottom, and the only way forward is up.
Miriam Uria
Occupation: Supply chain director for Sapa Building Sys-tems, Iberia.Work location: Miranda de Ebro in Spain, and Lisbon, Ílhavo and Penafiel in Portugal.Family: Married with a three-year-old daughter.
Years with Sapa: Seven.Hobbies: Reading, running and padel, a racquet game where tennis meets squash.How would you describe yourself in single adjective? Passionate!
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Role model
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Either way you say it – here they call it aluminum – the metal is sizzling in the United States. And the nation’s
healthy appetite for the metal continues to grow.TEXT KEVIN WIDLIC PHOTO ED FREEMAN/GETTY IMAGES
Outlook AMERICA
The transformationof America
U.S. DEMAND FOR ALUMINIUM is above where
it was prior to the Great Recession in 2009, says
Ryan Olsen, who is responsible for information
and statistics for the U.S. trade group the Alumi-
num Association. The automotive and building
sectors have led the push, particularly for extrud-
ed solutions, with the transportation industry
close behind.
Not long after Ford turned aluminium into
coffee-machine chatter with the introduction of
its lightweight F-150 pickup truck, U.S. President
Barack Obama signed an executive order to signif-
icantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well
as energy use in federal buildings by 2025. The
White House also asked major federal suppliers to
adopt similar practices.
“This policy incentivizes the selection of ‘en-
vironmentally preferable’ products,” says Heidi
Brock, who heads the Aluminum Association.
“The use of aluminum in buildings has long been a
key component of Leadership in Energy and Envi-
ronmental Design certification, in building design
and construction.”
CHRISTOPHER GRUNDLER IS director of the Of-
fice of Transportation and Air Quality for the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. He was part of
the team that developed the country’s first green-
house gas emission standards for both light- and
heavy-duty vehicles.
He says the office is anticipating substantial
change in the automotive industry during the next
decade, in advanced gas technologies and combus-
tion engines, and through more lightweighting.
Carmakers like Jaguar and Tesla offer examples.
“Automotive engineers are in a golden age in
which they can transform the way they are mak-
ing cars,” Grundler says.
This transformation will include aluminium,
says Alan Taub, a university professor and former
head of global research and development for Gen-
eral Motors. “Anything we can do to reduce weight
helps the equation relating to [vehicle] emissions
and fuel economy, because about 15 percent of the
improvement in fuel economy is lightweighting,”
Taub says.
“But it is difficult to say which material will
win.”
THE UNEMPLOYMENT RATE in the United
States has fallen nearly 2 percentage points
over the past two years. Slightly more than 80
percent of the people employed in the United
States work at least 35 hours per week, according
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“ Automotive engineers are in a golden age in which they can transform the way they are making cars.” Christopher Grundler, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
SignResource provides signage for big companies that want to change their visual identity or small businesses that want to establish their own.
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Outlook AMERICA
Clean energy manufacturingThe aluminium industry in the United States is experiencing good times, and this is important for the country. The U.S.-based Aluminum Association re-ports that:
G More than 155,000 workers are directly employed in the aluminium industry in the United States, and for each of these jobs, an additional 3.3 jobs are created elsewhere in the economy.
G Since 2013, member companies have announced U.S. plant expansions and investments totaling more than $2.3 billion and creating more than 1,000 permanent and temporary jobs.
“Everything about aluminum manufac-turing is what we consider clean energy manufacturing,” says senior adviser Da-vid Foster of the Department of Energy. “Aluminum industry jobs contribute to the economy and the environment.”
to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Wages are going
up. Gasoline prices are lower. The stock market is
stronger and home prices are rising.
The International Monetary Fund writes
that America’s manufacturing output bounced
back from the recession of 2008-09 faster than
after other recent downturns. The Economist
cites experts who expect the country to shed
low-tech industries and excel at the fancier stuff,
more advanced manufacturing. And with better
technology, manufacturing is becoming ever less
labor-intensive.
How long will the rebound last? It’s hard to say.
Joseph P. Quinlan, who works as chief market
strategist and managing director of the Bank
of America Investment Strategies Group, says,
“Without structural reforms in the United States,
the growth we see could be fleeting.”
“People are always wanting to
reinvent themselves,” says Mike
Jimenez of SignResource Identity
Group. “That is good for us.”
Signs of the times
TEXT KEVIN WIDLIC PHOTO RYAN SCHUDE
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SIGNRESOURCE IS A full-service manufacturer
of signage and identity solutions and the U.S. lead-
er in LED applications for corporate identification
programs. Headquartered in Maywood, Califor-
nia, a suburb of Los Angeles, the company has
served national and regional clients from coast to
coast since 1969.
“We may have to build as many as 400 signs per
month,” says Jimenez, director of engineering and
quality. “They could be for a bank, a restaurant, a
new location or a whole region, all in a particular
amount of time. So we have to get smarter in how
we make the signs – and we want to pass on these
savings to customers.”
Wherever you drive in the United States,
chances are you will see one of SignResource’s
exterior signage products – at gas stations, banks
like Wells Fargo and restaurants such as Burger
King. The company has delivered 500,000 sign
products for Shell Oil alone.
The exterior signs are made with aluminium
extrusions and are hinged for easy access to ser-
vice lighting fixtures. SignResource has used ex-
trusions in its signs for 22 years.
“We’re big in the petroleum industry, and when
these companies visit us to carry out their audits,
they look at everything – down to the safety of the
signs,” says Jimenez. “Rainwater is a factor, be-
cause the products today are more sophisticated
in terms of electricity and lighting. Our extruded
products meet and surpass UL (Underwriters
Laboratories) certification.”
When big companies change their visual iden-
tities, or when small business owners establish
their own, SignResource is asked to respond fast.
Operations manager Jose Andrade says it is not
unusual for the company to face two-week lead
times.
Consequently, most of the inventory that the
company has manufactured will stay at the plant
for only two days.
“Aluminum is our bread and butter,” says
Jimenez. “Design is easy and it makes the whole
process faster. It is light, which saves in the cost of
transportation, and the weight ratio to the wind
load is more economical with extrusions. And it
looks good.
“We want our signs to look good for a long time.
We offer a five-year warranty, but I have seen some
last 20 years.”
“ We want our signs to look good for a long time. We offer a five-year warranty, but I have seen some last 20 years.” Mike Jimenez, Sign Resource Identity Group
the picture
In the Sapa world, a laboratory is a room or facility that is equipped for conducting scientific research on or about aluminium. The work performed in the lab may improve existing products or processes, or prepare the way for new ones. More efficient processes or products can reduce costs.
Science never sleeps
This lab is located on the southwest coast of Norway, in Karmøy. Sapa’s aluminium tubing operation uses the lab to stay ahead of the trends, from the further development of coatings and alloys to corrosion and heat exchanger design.
TEXT KEVIN WIDLIC PHOTO TERJE RIAN
On the cutting edge
Electrochemical measurements show the reactions on the interface between the metal and an electrolyte solution.
Scanning electron microscope investi-gations can show how microstructures develop during the processing and fab-rication of aluminium products, and in what ways microstructure components influence the final properties.
Brazing is a joining process where a filler metal is heated above its melting temperature but below the melting point of the metals being joined.
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Mars rover’s aluminium spacesuitNASA’S $2.5 BILLION Mars rover mis-
sion Curiosity is the most ambitious in
the history of robotic space exploration.
It’s certainly the first time the world has
heard “Happy Birthday” sung from the
surface of the red planet, to mark the ro-
bot’s first year on Mars. Curiosity’s mis-
sion is to find out whether there has ever
been life on Mars and if humans could
someday survive on the planet. Not that
Curiosity has any worries in that depart-
ment. Lightweight, durable and extraor-
dinarily strong, space-age aluminium
alloys were NASA’s material of choice for
the three-meter-long, 900-kilogram ro-
bot, the tough outer layer forming a pro-
tective shell for the sensitive electronics
inside. You can follow the mission on
mars.nasa.gov/msl and on Facebook and
Twitter at facebook.com/marscuriosity
and twitter.com/marscuriosity.
This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Mojave" site, where its drill collected the mission's second taste of Mount Sharp.
NORWEGIAN EYEWEAR company Kaibosh’s latest col-
lection is the result of an in-
spirational dialogue with Ber-
gen-based musician, producer
and eyewear lover Kristian
Stockhaus. The aluminium
frames come in seven styles
and are named after key mo-
ments in Stockhaus’s life.
NORDIC WALKING originated
in Finland as a summer training
regime for cross-country skiers
but has since spread all over the
world. The popular workout in-
creases energy consumption and
overall fitness levels. But don’t be
surprised if you see Nordic walk-
ing enthusiasts running or jump-
ing with their poles at night. The
reflective prints on Silva’s tele-
scopic aluminium poles make it
easier to see walkers exercising
under cover of darkness.
Power up for a power walk
News
He’s got the look
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A healing piece of art
of aluminium drinks cans are recycled in Europe.
PERCENT
Hospitals could often use a comforting sight. And that’s just what Linda Covits’s monu-mental artwork Havre is meant to provide. Designed to evoke a sense of community and hope, the sculp-ture – made from rectangular aluminium tubes and LED projec-tors – enfolds patients, staff and visitors to Montreal’s McGill
University Health Centre in its protec-tive, curving embrace. During the day natural light casts shadows across the artwork, transforming it with the hours, days and seasons, while at night LED lights bathe it in subtle shades of sky blue and blue-green, evoking a sense of air and water, elements essential to life.
Stairs for the starsSAPA EXTRUSION HARDERWIJK in the Netherlands literally set the
stage for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, providing 20 tons
of specially made extruded aluminium tubes for Dutch metalwork com-
pany De Wilde’s spectacular construction.
Improving kids’ quality of funGALOPIN, SPAIN’S LEADING designer
and manufacturer of outdoor playground
equipment and playscapes, is now using
aluminium profiles instead of wooden
pillars for its swings and towers.
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Keeping cars cool in India
TEXT R F MAMOOWALAPHOTO SAMEER BELVALKAR
In India’s growing automotive industry, aluminium is the logical choice for making heat exchangers for fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly vehicles.
THE INDIAN AUTO INDUSTRY has come a long
way from the 1960s and ’70s, when drivers head-
ing up mountain roads had to stop to cool the en-
gine by pouring water into the radiator. “Nobody
opens the bonnet these days; if you do, it is an in-
sult to the carmaker,” chuckles Ravi Chidambar,
CEO of Tata Toyo Radiator Ltd.
Many young people are fascinated by cars, but
Chidambar says he was always passionate about
heat exchange systems. As a mechanical engineer,
he did a postgraduate course in 1986 specializing
in heat power and thermal engineering and joined
Tata Toyo.
“As I tell my team, as long as there’s motion
– cars, trucks and so on – there will be friction
producing heat, and we have to find devices to cool
it down or heat it up in cold climates,” he says. “As
long as there is motion, we’ll never run out of busi-
ness.”
After a slump, the Indian auto industry is dis-
playing some green shoots, with passenger cars
growing at about 4 percent annually and commer-
cial vehicles at 8 to 10 percent. India is a hugely
price-sensitive market, and gradually auto manu-
facturing has gone local to make vehicles afford-
able through government incentives and favorable
duties. Higher purchasing power has boosted de-
mand for passenger cars. “As the Indian economy
grows, no other industry can contribute as much
to the GDP as the auto industry,” Chidambar says.
On using aluminium in their heat exchangers,
he says Tata Toyo’s philosophy is to make more
environmentally friendly products. “With auto
vehicles getting more fuel-efficient,” he says, “if
you have lighter products with lower emissions
mandated by strict regulations in India, you are in
business.”
An automotive vehicle has 20 to 25 heat ex-
changers, and Tata Toyo now makes seven of
these, with more in the pipeline. Those will roll
out when electric cars and cars with hybrid con-
figurations take off. “In some heat exchangers we
now use stainless steel, which we’re trying to con-
vert to aluminium,” he says.
Profile RAVI CHIDAMBAR
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Ravi Chidambar
Age: 53Designation: CEO, Tata Toyo Radiator Ltd.Location: Pune, India.Education: Degree in mechanical engineer-ing; a postgraduate course at IIT Bombay in heat power and thermal engineering. Family: Wife is a home-maker. Two children: a daughter training in physiotherapy and a son pursuing an engineering degree.Hobbies: Cooking, gardening, trekking.
Advantage aluminiumAluminium’s main advantage is its formability, ductility and ability to make brazed parts, as opposed to welded parts. Brazing of two ma-terials is superior when you need good thermal contact. As Tata Toyo Radiator CEO Ravi Chidambar says, “Earlier we had copper and brass radiators, copper fins and brass tubes, but the bonding between the fin and tube was by soldering, involving the use of lead. And lead conduc-tivity is less than that of copper and brass.”
Aluminium fins and tubes (he uses Sapa’s three-layered aluminium tubes) get bonded by brazing. When subjected to a temperature just short of melting point, aluminium forms a kind of paste and gets fused, providing extremely good thermal contact.
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Solutions can’t be found in textbooks. They are application-based,” says Ravi Chidambar
Aluminium is lightweight and has good ther-
mal conductivity, even though lower than that
of copper. Its amenability to various layering of
alloys is another advantage. “Even though sus-
ceptible to some degree of corrosion, it is tougher
and lightweight and costs less than copper,” he
says. “In the electrical industry today, transmis-
sion wires in large-size cables are all made of alu-
minium.”
BUT NEW CHALLENGES in heat exchanger
designs need new solutions. “A heat exchange
designer gets better and better with evolution and
experience,” he says. “Solutions can’t be found in
textbooks. They are application-based. You learn
and improve with practice, and after several trials
comes the final product.”
Tata Motors, the Indian auto major, buys 40
percent of what his company makes. Exports to
the United States now make up only 3 to 4 percent
of output, but Chidambar plans to increase this
portion to 20 percent in the next three years.
In the automotive industry, technical and
regulatory challenges abound. While emission
standards are getting tougher, there will be cost
and packaging challenges as well. “In passenger
cars, people want more room in the car and less
room for the engine and components,” he says. “So
our products have to shrink in size and dissipate
more heat to reduce emissions.” There are con-
straints and boundaries around which all designs
happen, but you have to overcome the challenges
to meet your goals – technical, commercial, safety
and reliability. “Only then can you forge a team
and put together a plant that produces quality
products demanded by our customers such as
Tata Motors, Mahindra, Volvo, Ashok Leyland and
Cummins,” he says.
Chidambar says the use of aluminium in his in-
dustry will only grow. “Aluminium won’t get obso-
lete or replaced for many years,” he says. “But the
challenge will be to develop lighter but stronger
grades, better alloys and better material and keep
improving, because customers want thinner and
thinner and yet stronger aluminium.”
His biggest challenge is that invariably an Indi-
an car buyer first switches on the air conditioning
and wants the car to cool down instantly. “So we
have to design heat exchange evaporators to cool
down fast,” he says.
“ As long as there is motion, we will never run out of business.” Ravi Chidambar, CEO of Tata Toyo Radiator Ltd.
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trends
PREFERRED CHOICEAluminium, at one-third the
price per ton of copper, is increas-ingly being selected for use in solar thermal collector absorbers. It is also displacing the similarly priced stainless steel for casings and frames due to its lighter weight.
USAGE RISESBy 2050 aluminium use in
photovoltaic systems is expected to rise tenfold, predominantly for mounting structures and panel frames in inverters. This is due to strong growth in photovoltaic markets globally as governments provide incentives to displace fos-sil fuels.
BRIGHT APPLICATIONS
With their low density and relative ease of use, portable aluminium collectors are highly suitable for use in solar cooking. They are particularly feasible in areas with strong irradiance and few other choices of fuel, such as in disaster relief situations.
HEAT TRANSFER Tubes for carrying heat-
transfer fluid and conductor cables for electricity are both increasingly being made of aluminium and displacing the traditional copper due to a strong price difference. Production and service techniques have also rapidly evolved to enable the use of aluminium in these ap-plications.
COATED ALUMINIUMUsing special coatings in-
creases aluminium’s solar radiation absorption factor from 15 to 95 percent. Such coatings are essential on collector absorbers to increase solar radiation conversion ef-ficiency while reducing weight and corrosion.
solar thermal trendsAluminium can be found in more that one-third of solar thermal
absorbers, says Chris Laughton, managing director of the Solar
Design Company. He shares his insights into solar thermal trends
and aluminium applications with readers of Shapes.
TEXT CARI SIMMONS ILLUSTRATION CHRISTIAN MONTENEGRO
References: The Solar Design Company and “Aluminium and Renewable Energy Systems – Prospects for the Sustainable Generation of Electricity and Heat, final versioncommissioned by the International Aluminium Institute”, www.solardesign.co.uk/, www.world-aluminium.org/media/filer_public/2013/01/15/fl0000407.pdf
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Development
Verandas in a flashTEXT ANNA MCQUEEN
Want to add a porch to your house? Imagine if you could create a 3D mock-up in minutes to show you exactly what it would look like. It’s not science fiction – the future is already here.
1. Create the shape of your veranda project.2. Integrate items and open the sliders to make it more realistic.3. Integrate your own con-struction on the picture of your house to visualize the final result.
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Delta Services is based in Toulouse, in southeastern France. It was cre-ated in 2006 and currently employs 33 people in locations including France, Germany, Belgium and Spain. Delta Services produces software solutions for Sapa Building Systems, with 7,000 users worldwide.
T HE DELTA SERVICES department of
Sapa Building Systems was set up in
2006 to create computer solutions for
the visualization of Wicona, Technal
and Sapa branded products. In 2010
it began looking at how it could help the brand’s
customers sell verandas more easily to end us-
ers, and the solution was a series of 3D software
programs – Tech 3D, Wic3D and Sapa3D for the
Technal, Wicona and Sapa brands, respectively.
These programs are easy to learn and easy to use,
and they can produce a stylish 3D mock-up of a
proposed build in a matter of seconds, to help end
users make up their minds in a flash.
“It’s very important to work in close coopera-
tion with our customers on projects such as this,
when the need comes directly from them,” ex-
plains Bertrand Assemat, Delta Services director.
“We subcontracted the software development to a
Hungarian firm that specializes in these kinds of
solutions, and they worked from our very specific
requirements to enable us to release a first version
in 2010. From the feedback from our customers,
we were able to release an update in 2014. The
whole experience has been very positive.
“ONE OF OUR main targets for these products
is architects,” Assemat says. “With software such
as this they can save a whole lot of time in the cre-
ation of complex 3D construction like façades, and
Delta Services
soon will be able to generate BIM (Building Infor-
mation Modeling) data within their digital mod-
els.” (See fact box for more information on BIM.)
For aluminium metal builders, the software
provides a useful sales tool. “Our aim was to pro-
vide these users with a highly portable software
solution that is very quick to learn how to use, so
they can take it to the end user to show them what
their design project will look like in situ,” Assemat
explains. “The builder can take a quick photo-
graph of the end user’s house and within a matter
of minutes can show them how it will look with a
beautiful new veranda on it. We believe this is a
great way to seal the deal.”
BEFORE SUCH 3D software existed, architects
and metal builders had to take many measure-
ments and show different examples to potential
clients before coming up with a mock-up that
could take hours to create. Now they can do it in a
snap, right in the client’s home. The software uses
a process of simple geometrical blocks that are
assembled to create the final simulation. Expert
training takes about a day, but many people just
learn on the job.
In parallel, Delta Services has also created a
web-based version of the software for end users to
experiment with and to create their own simula-
tions. “Our aim here was to make something as
simple and as appealing as Ikea’s kitchen planner
but for verandas,” Assemat says. “Information
from the end user’s online simulation is sent di-
rectly to us, and then we can put them in contact
with our nearest partner metal builder for a quote.
“Our aim is to produce tools that are simple
and efficient so that people enjoy using them,
and we will continually develop them, creating
upgrades and adding modules that make life ever
easier for architects and metal builders,” says As-
semat, who hopes to launch modules for the 3D
simulation of windows, gates and shutter systems
in due course. “That way, they are more likely to
use or recommend our solutions – which is, natu-
rally, the ultimate goal.”
BIMA key element to these 3D tools for architects is the future inclusion of technology for creating Building Information Modeling (BIM) files within the models. BIM files include specific physical and functional characteristics of places, such as mathe-matical measurements and information on utility supplies. Several European countries are seeing a push for the adoption of BIM standards to improve software interoperabil-ity and ensure better cooperation among industry players.
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Green Solutions RECYCLING
TEXT CARI SIMMONS PHOTO LAURI ROTKO/GETTY IMAGES
R ECYCLING ALUMINIUM, WHICH uses about 5 percent of the energy
required for producing primary
aluminium, makes sense both
environmentally and financially.
Today, more than half of the aluminium in Sapa’s
production has been recycled. It stems from both
internal scrap and remelted aluminium provided
by external suppliers.
In North America alone, Sapa uses over
200,000 metric tons of purchased scrap annually
in its eight remelt casthouses. This scrap comes
from many sources including scrap dealers, bro-
kers and Sapa customers.
“Working with our customers on closed-loop
processes has proven to be a successful partner-
ship for us and our customers,” says Timothy Chi-
mera, director of metal procurement for Sapa in
North America. In the closed-loop recycling pro-
cess, industrial scrap is bought from customers
and turned back into its original state for remanu-
facturing, thus increasing product sustainability.
“Every customer situation is unique, and
we are committed to solving the one-of-a-kind
needs,” Chimera says. “Sometimes this includes
teaming up with one of our many core scrap deal-
ers to facilitate the return of the scrap.”
On the other side of the Atlantic, similar
programs are under way. For example, old lamp-
posts, flooring and even flower trolleys from the
Netherlands have been purchased from custom-
ers and converted into new, finished products.
“Customers sell us their old aluminium scraps
which we recycle in our furnaces and extrude into
new aluminium,” explains Mick Brennan, senior
secondary metal manager in Sapa's European
Metal Group.
CUSTOMERS INCREASINGLY LOOK to buy this
“green” recycled aluminium. “Some counties only
buy guaranteed approved recycled material, so
this is a big driver of our recycling efforts,” he says.
Finding good-quality scrap can be a chal-
lenge, but a new sorting line at the opera-
tions in Tibshelf, UK, has made it pos-
sible to buy lower-grade material and
improve its quality by extracting all
contaminants, such as iron, zinc,
copper, plastics, wood and dust.
“The machinery, which includes a
shredder, trommel, eddy current,
magnetic separator and X-ray ma-
chine, produces cleaner scrap that
will help us produce a better-quality
billet at lower cost,” Brennan says.
In the new line, material is shredded and
fed into the eddy current, which removes plastic
and paper contaminants. The magnetic separator
and X-ray machine remove other contaminants
such as stainless steel, copper, brass and iron,
which in turn are sold to make aluminium hard-
eners and other products.
Aluminium can be recycled over and over again, consuming a small fraction of the energy required to produce primary aluminium.
never dies
Making aluminium from recycled scrap uses 1/20th
of the energy required by primary aluminium
production. Customers are increasingly seeking
this "green" metal.
Old aluminium
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No waste in the recycling process
G Aluminium can be recycled and reused indefinitely without any reduction in quality.
G Recycled aluminium consumes about 5 percent of the energy required in primary aluminium production.
G More than 50 percent of all aluminium in Sapa’s production stems from scrap recycling and billets of remelted aluminium.
G About 75 percent of the almost 1 billion metric tons of aluminium ever produced is still in productive use. (Source: The International Aluminium Institute)
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Screw ports to attach end caps.
Slots for printed circuit boards.
Fins for dissipating
heat.
Cell cradles.
FSW joints allow for precise assembly tolerances.
The extrusion housing serves as protection and
helps regulate the tempera-ture of the cells. By bringing
several features together into the extrusion, functionality can be integrated at a low
cost.
The celling of energy storageAn assembly made of extrusions is housing Ioxus’s new energy storage
cells. The New York-based company manufactures ultracapacitor technology for transportation, alternative energy, medical, industrial
and consumer product markets.
detail