The Attribute Of Being Comparatively Lighter Makes Aluminum Not Only

The attribute of being comparatively lighter makes aluminum not only preferable to designers but it offers maneuverings and handling advantages to all sections of the product-business chain including design benefits, shop floor handling ease and other end user benefits. There is no doubt that aluminum alloys in all forms offer better design flexibility compared to other automotive application materials.
Besides the design aspects, other important issues which need to be considered for a prospective automotive material like aluminum alloy is the availability and efficiency of its manufacturing and processing technology. In general, Aluminum is one of the few metals that can be cast by any of the standard metal forming methods - die, sand, permanent mold, investment, plaster, continuous, lost foam, squeeze, and hot isostatic pressing. With the advances & innovations in manufacturing technology & processing procedures for quality castings, aluminum alloy is now poised to make further inroads in automotive applications. Component quality can now be enhanced easily by following approaches like - vacuum and pressure casting processes including permanent mould and semi-solid/squeeze casting and adopting automated inspection and non-destructive testing techniques (Bujalski, ). These diverse casting options along with the favorable design aspects and material characteristics are expected to have synergistic effects in augmenting the overall potential of aluminum alloy thereby making it a very viable and attractive substitute to steel for automotive applications.
Supply- Availability & Environmental Issues
There were some concerns regarding the availability and the industry's ability to keep on supplying and meeting the ever growing demands for aluminum materials. However, careful scrutiny reveals that there is no cause for concern, either with regard to the availability of materials required to produce aluminum, or the industry's ability to expand production capacity for meeting growing demands (EAA-Report). Aluminum is one of the most abundant elements on earth and the raw material used for production and processing of aluminum metal is predominantly bauxite and currently availability of bauxite ore is estimated to be over 40 thousand million tons, which is enough to last for more than 400 years at current rates of consumption (EAA, 1996).