News

Constellium Valais and the Haute École d’Ingénierie of HES-SO Valais-Wallis have joined forces to create the first industrial and academic lab for applied research and development in Valais, Switzerland. Digitalisation is a challenge for all manufacturing companies today. For Constellium Valais and the Haute École d’Ingénierie HES-SO Valais-Wallis, it was natural to join forces and gather competencies around digitalisation concepts to further master industrial processes. This partnership includes the creation of a “Smart Process...

On September 20th, ALLIANCE (Affordable Lightweight Automobiles Alliance) will host the ALLIANCE Future Lightweighting Day, following the Aachen Body Engineering Days. The ALLIANCE Future Lightweighting Day is an all-day event dedicated to materials and manufacturing innovations in the field of automotive lightweighting. The event will include presentations from the four winners of the ALLIANCE Lightweight Open Innovation Challenge: F.Tech from Japan/Germany (with a manufacturing technology for complex stamping of high strength steels), Imperial College London from the UK (with a...

The family company Achenbach Buschhütten will once again present itself at the ALUMINIUM 2018 show as specialist for rolling and foil slitting technology for the production of aluminium flat rolled products at the highest quality level.  The strategic approach is to offer ‘everything from one single source’: layout, design, manufacturing, assembly, commissioning; including product lifecycle management with services and consulting. Mastering the technology in every single detail and to continuously developing the machines rank among the success factors of...

The owner of the Fort William aluminium smelter has said preparations to build a new plant producing alloy wheels for the automotive industry at the site are progressing well. GFG Alliance was granted planning consent for the project – expected to create hundreds of new jobs – earlier this year and aims to start building work soon. A spokesman for the multinational firm said: “We’ve erected project offices next to our aluminium smelter, with five full time project-management staff already in post and a further eight due to join the team over the coming...

Mecfor proudly unveiled one of its most innovative projects to date, the AGV TEAM: the first automated guided vehicle designed and made in North America and destined specifically for the worldwide primary aluminium production industry. A remarkable achievement, the vehicle is able to manoeuvre in completely autonomous fashion within complex environments posing numerous challenges, such as strong magnetic fields, dust, wide temperature variations and constant interactions with workers and other equipment. “With this technological investment, Mecfor is positioning itself for...

House of Lords lunch shows rising influence of aluminium. On the 12th July, The UK Aluminium Federation (ALFED) held its annual lunch at the House of Lords hosted by Lord Paul of Marylebone.  It was a fruitful and honest discussion of key issues facing the industry, with lots of opportunity for members to ask questions of the parliamentarians and civil servants. And there was a bit of additional drama as the MPs hurried from the chamber with their fresh copies of the Brexit white paper – it was interesting hearing their immediate impressions. Here are the key takeaways...

Eurasian Resources Group has reiterated its commitment to strengthen its aluminium business with a number of new initiatives including the development of a joint venture to roll out aluminium poles, the introduction of hydropower as a means of producing “green” aluminium, and the manufacturing of 3D-printing powders. Given current manufacturing volumes and trends, the Group envisages that it will soon be able to use all alumina produced by ERG for its own aluminium production in Kazakhstan.  The President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev,...

Alufer Mining Limited has announced that production has commenced at the Bel Air bauxite mine in Guinea and the company has achieved First Ore on Ship on schedule, on budget and with zero lost time injuries. Surface mining started at the end of June 2018 and material was stockpiled in advance of commissioning on the 3rd August 2018. Having successfully transitioned from Construction into Operations the team will now focus on ramping up to steady state production of 5.5 million tonnes per annum. Having raised US$205m in December 2016, the Construction Phase commenced in January 2017...