NEWS ON INNOVATIVE ALUMINIUM SOLUTIONS FROM THE SAPA GROUP 2:2015

LIGHT TRANSPORT
TRAINS, TRUCKS
AND SHIPS SLIM DOWN

The
golden

COOL CARS
THE METAL OF
CHOICE IN INDIA

minium
aluage
of
American
cars

By reducing weight
and cutting emissions,
U.S. automakers are
transforming the way
they make cars

Editorial

Contents

Momentum
is growing

04

Lighter and brighter

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 Sapas 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 wont rust. With its amazing signs, Sign
Resource uses aluminiums versatility as a selling
point. These are the kinds of customers who
are bringing aluminium to the forefront
of manufacturing today.
Strong, lightweight and sustainable aluminium is changing the world
around us. Think about how
aluminium can help your business. There is value in choosing
sustainable and innovative aluminium solutions.

Pedal to the metal

Aluminium is becoming more popular in different modes
of mass transportation, from trucks to buses to trains.

08

The U.S. automotive industry is looking for more lightweighting material to improve fuel economy.

16

Seeking balance
Ravi Chidambar, CEO of Tata Toyo in India, is passionate
about heat exchangers and he looks for material with
good thermal conductivity.

20

Modern visualization
3D software makes it possible to create a mock-up of a
building or a room in a snap, right in the clients home.

MORE TO READ
How it works 03 Role Model 07 The Picture 12
News 14 Trends 19 Green Solutions 22

04

08

16

20

PATRICK LAWLOR

Executive vice president

Sapa Extrusion Americas

Shapes is the Sapa Groups customer magazine. It is published twice a year in 18 language editions.

Editor-in-chief: Kevin Widlic, kevin.widlic@sapagroup.com Editorial Assistant: Eva Ekselius,

eva.ekselius@sa
eva.ekselius@sapagroup.com Managing Editor: Ylva Carlsson Art Director: Johan Nohr
Language coordination:
coord
Inger Finell Production: Appelberg Publishing Group Printing: V-TAB
Changes of address:
add
Inform your contact person at Sapa or Corporate Communications at
info@sapagroup.com
info@sapagroup
Shapes is also available at www.sapagroup.com
Copyright Sapa AAS 2015 - Sapa's product names in this magazine are all
trademarks of Sapa Group.




How it works
ILLUSTRATION PETR KOLLARK

Possible
embossing

Forming
rolls
HF (High Frequency)
Induction Heating

Welding rolls

Sizing/Calibration
rolls

Welding
aluminium
tubes
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 tolerances are achieved by sets of calibration rollers,
before the tubes are cut to length.
Welded tubing offers a limited wall-thickness 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.

B-type at oval tubes

All sort of
shapes are
possible.

Oval tubes

Round tubes

Rectangular tubes




Mass Transportation

Lean, green and

on the move
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











  

Main segments

Mass transportation includes

the movement of people
as well as goods. The main
market segments are:
Trucks
Trailers
Trains (rolling stock)
Marine

G
G
G
G

LFRED NOBEL, whose fortune was used to

establish the Nobel Prizes, may have been the

rst 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 worlds population living in cities grows
to nearly 70 percent by 2050 and energy consumption for transport 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 UNs Climate Summit in New York. UIC Director 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 rolling stock.




 





PHOTO: RYAN SCHUDE

mass transportation

Climate change is the dening issue of our

times, says Loubinoux. Rail offers an important 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 increases 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.




Sapas Ralph Gideon and Virginia Tejeda of Maxon discuss the use of
aluminium in Maxons liftgates for U.S. truck and trailer companies.

They dont
want to see rust

PHOTO: COLLINSMFG.COM

CLASS 8 TRUCKS on average use more than

500 kilograms of aluminium. The metal is
used primarily in interior and exterior applications, trailer structure, cabs and other critical 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 shipbuilding did not begin until the 1960s, when
the price of the metal became more competitive. 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 socalled superstructures.
As with the other modes of mass transportation, 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 Nobels
passenger boat, a vessel called Defender sailed to
victory in one of the most prestigious regattas,
the Americas Cup. The boat was built with aluminium. But back then, the cost of the light metal
was 35 times more than the cost of steel.

Collins Manufacturing
Company is a distributor of Maxon liftgates.

Maxon is the worlds largest single-brand manufacturer of liftgates for trucks. Its customers are
becoming as interested in aluminiums looks as in
its light weight.
Maxon manufactures liftgates for light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks. The California-based
company says that these tend to be stored ush
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 platforms for Maxons 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 pretty, Tejeda says. They dont want to see rust, and
they dont want their customers to see rust. They
want aluminium, because it looks better longer.

Role model

TEXT ANNA MCQUEEN PHOTO MIGUEL JELLISS

A light on
the horizon
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 WAS born in Vitoria, northern

Spain, studied engineering at university and
did her postgraduate training in management.
I guess you might say Im a people person, so
management ended up being the best t for me,
although having an engineering background certainly 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, ensuring 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 company year after year, and thats never a fun job to
do. And at the same time as youre laying people
off, you have to keep the remaining team motivated and focused on the future.
For Uria, the key to restructuring is respect.
Its a must when youre handling layoffs, which
are very distressing for all concerned but particularly for the soon-to-be ex-employee. Of course,
there are legal obligations, but its 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.
Were at a stage where the size of the company
in Spain and Portugal is adapted to the demands
of the market, and in the rst quarter of 2015 we
nally began growing again, she says.

Miriam Uria
Occupation: Supply chain
director for Sapa Building Systems, Iberia.
Work location: Miranda de Ebro
in Spain, and Lisbon, lhavo and
Penael in Portugal.
Family: Married with a threeyear-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!




Outlook AMERICA

The transformation
of America
Either way you say it here they call it aluminum
themetal is sizzling in the United States. And the nations
healthy appetite for the metal continues to grow.
TEXT KEVIN WIDLIC PHOTO ED FREEMAN/GETTY IMAGES

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 Aluminum Association. The automotive and building
sectors have led the push, particularly for extruded 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 significantly 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 environmentally 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 Environmental Design certication, in building design
and construction.
CHRISTOPHER GRUNDLER IS director of the Of-

ce of Transportation and Air Quality for the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency. He was part of




the team that developed the countrys rst greenhouse 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 combustion 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 making cars, Grundler says.
This transformation will include aluminium,
says Alan Taub, a university professor and former
head of global research and development for General 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

overthe past two years. Slightly more than 80
percent of the people employed in the United
States work at least 35 hours per week, according

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




Outlook AMERICA
SignResource provides signage for big
companies that want to change their
visual identity or small businesses that
want to establish their own.

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 Americas 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? Its 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 eeting.

Clean energy
manufacturing
The aluminium industry in the United
States is experiencing good times, and
this is important for the country. The
U.S.-based Aluminum Association reports 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.
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 manufacturing is what we consider clean energy

manufacturing, says senior adviser David Foster of the Department of Energy.
Aluminum industry jobs contribute to
the economy and the environment.

10




Signs of
thetimes
People are always wanting to
reinvent themselves, saysMike
Jimenez of SignResource Identity
Group. That is good for us.
TEXT KEVIN WIDLIC
PHOTO RYAN SCHUDE

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

SIGNRESOURCE IS A full-service manufacturer

of signage and identity solutions and the U.S. leader in LED applications for corporate identication
programs. Headquartered in Maywood, California, 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 SignResources
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 service lighting xtures. SignResource has used extrusions in its signs for 22 years.
Were 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, because the products today are more sophisticated
in terms of electricity and lighting. Our extruded
products meet and surpass UL (Underwriters
Laboratories) certication.
When big companies change their visual identities, 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 ve-year warranty, but I have seen some
last 20 years.



11

the picture

This lab is located on the southwest coast

of Norway, in Karmy. Sapas 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.

Science
never sleeps
TEXT KEVIN WIDLIC PHOTO TERJE RIAN

In the Sapa world, a laboratory is a room or facility that

is equipped for conducting scientic 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.

On the cutting edge

Electrochemical measurements show

the reactions on the interface between
the metal and an electrolyte solution.

Scanning electron microscope investigations can show how microstructures

develop during the processing and fabrication of aluminium products, and in
what ways microstructure components
inuence the nal properties.

Brazing is a joining process where a

ller metal is heated above its melting
temperature but below the melting
point of the metals being joined.

News

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.

Mars rovers aluminium spacesuit

NASAS $2.5 BILLION Mars rover mission Curiosity is the most ambitious in
the history of robotic space exploration.
Its certainly the rst time the world has
heard Happy Birthday sung from the
surface of the red planet, to mark the robots rst year on Mars. Curiositys mis-

sion is to nd 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 department. Lightweight, durable and extraordinarily strong, space-age aluminium
alloys were NASAs material of choice for

the three-meter-long, 900-kilogram robot, the tough outer layer forming a protective 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.

Power up for
a power walk

Hes got the look

NORWEGIAN EYEWEAR

company Kaiboshs latest collection is the result of an inspirational dialogue with Bergen-based musician, producer

14




and eyewear lover Kristian

Stockhaus. The aluminium
frames come in seven styles
and are named after key moments in Stockhauss life.

NORDIC WALKING originated

in Finland asa summer training
regime for cross-country skiers
but has since spread all over the
world. The popular workout increases energy consumption and
overall tness levels. But dont be
surprised if you see Nordic walking enthusiasts running or jumping with their poles at night. The
reective prints on Silvas telescopic aluminium poles make it
easier to see walkers exercising
under cover of darkness.

Improving kids
quality of fun
GALOPIN, SPAINS LEADING designer
G

PHOTO: MARC CRAMER

and
an manufacturer of outdoor playground
equipment
eq
and playscapes, is now using
aluminium
al
proles instead of wooden
pillars
for its swings and towers.
p

A healing piece of art

Hospitals could often
use a comforting sight.
And thats just what
Linda Covitss monumental artwork Havre
is meant to provide.
Designed to evoke a
sense of community
and hope, the sculpture made from
rectangular aluminium
tubes and LED projectors enfolds patients,
staff and visitors to
Montreals McGill

University Health
Centre in its protective, 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 stars

SAPA 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 company De Wildes spectacular construction.

PERCENT
of aluminium drinks cans
are recycled in Europe.




15

Profile RAVI CHIDAMBAR

Keeping
cars cool
in India
In Indias growing automotive
industry, aluminium is the logical
choice for making heat exchangers
for fuel-efficient, environmentally
friendly vehicles.
TEXT R F MAMOOWALA
PHOTO SAMEER BELVALKAR

16




THE INDIAN AUTO INDUSTRY has come a long

way from the 1960s and 70s, when drivers heading up mountain roads had to stop to cool the engine by pouring water into the radiator. Nobody
opens the bonnet these days; if you do, it is an insult 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 theres motion
cars, trucks and so on there will be friction
producing heat, and we have to nd devices to cool
it down or heat it up in cold climates, he says. As
long as there is motion, well never run out of business.
After a slump, the Indian auto industry is displaying some green shoots, with passenger cars
growing at about 4 percent annually and commercial vehicles at 8 to 10 percent. India is a hugely
price-sensitive market, and gradually auto manufacturing has gone local to make vehicles affordable through government incentives and favorable
duties. Higher purchasing power has boosted demand 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 Toyos 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 exchangers, and Tata Toyo now makes seven of
these, with more in the pipeline. Those will roll
out when electric cars and cars with hybrid congurations take off. In some heat exchangers we
now use stainless steel, which were trying to convert to aluminium, he says.

Ravi Chidambar
Age: 53
Designation: CEO, Tata
Toyo Radiator Ltd.
Location: Pune, India.
Education: Degree in
mechanical engineering; a postgraduate
course at IIT Bombay in
heat power and thermal
engineering.
Family: Wife is a homemaker. Two children:
a daughter training in
physiotherapy and a son
pursuing an engineering
degree.
Hobbies: Cooking,
gardening, trekking.




17

As long as there is
motion, we will never
run out of business.
Ravi Chidambar, CEO of Tata Toyo Radiator Ltd.

Aluminium is lightweight and has good thermal conductivity, even though lower than that
of copper. Its amenability to various layering of
alloys is another advantage. Even though susceptible to some degree of corrosion, it is tougher
and lightweight and costs less than copper, he
says. In the electrical industry today, transmission wires in large-size cables are all made of aluminium.
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 cant be found in
textbooks. They are application-based. You learn
and improve with practice, and after several trials
comes the nal 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 constraints and boundaries around which all designs
happen, but you have to overcome the challenges
to meet your goals technical, commercial, safety

18




Solutions cant be found

in textbooks. They are
application-based,
says Ravi Chidambar

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 industry will only grow. Aluminium wont get obsolete 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 Indian car buyer rst 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.

Advantage aluminium
Aluminiums main advantage is its formability, ductility and ability to
make brazed parts, as opposed to welded parts. Brazing of two materials is superior when you need good thermal contact. As Tata Toyo
Radiator CEO Ravi Chidambar says, Earlier we had copper and brass
radiators, copper ns and brass tubes, but the bonding between the n
and tube was by soldering, involving the use of lead. And lead conductivity is less than that of copper and brass.
Aluminium ns and tubes (he uses Sapas 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.

trends

solar thermal trends

Aluminium 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

PREFERRED CHOICE

Aluminium, at one-third the

price per ton of copper, is increasingly 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 RISES

By 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 fossil 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 heattransfer uid 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 applications.
COATED ALUMINIUM

Using special coatings increases aluminiums solar radiation

absorption factor from 15 to 95
percent. Such coatings are essential
on collector absorbers to increase
solar radiation conversion efciency while reducing weight and
corrosion.



References: The Solar Design Company and Aluminium and Renewable Energy Systems Prospects for the Sustainable Generation of Electricity and Heat, nal version
commissioned by the International Aluminium Institute, www.solardesign.co.uk/, www.world-aluminium.org/media/ler_public/2013/01/15/0000407.pdf

19

Development

Verandas in a ash
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. Its not science ction the future is already here.
TEXT ANNA MCQUEEN

1. Create the shape of your

veranda project.
2. Integrate items and open
the sliders to make it more
realistic.
3. Integrate your own construction on the picture of
your house to visualize the
nal result.

20




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 brands
customers sell verandas more easily to end users, 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 ash.
Its very important to work in close cooperation with our customers on projects such as this,
when the need comes directly from them, explains Bertrand Assemat, Delta Services director.
We subcontracted the software development to a
Hungarian rm that specializes in these kinds of
solutions, and they worked from our very specic
requirements to enable us to release a rst 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.

BIM
A key element to these
3D tools for architects
is the future inclusion of
technology for creating
Building Information
Modeling (BIM) les
within the models. BIM
les include specic
physical and functional
characteristics of
places, such as mathematical measurements
and information on
utility supplies. Several
European countries
are seeing a push for
the adoption of BIM
standards to improve
software interoperability and ensure better
cooperation among
industry players.

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 creation of complex 3D construction like faades, and

Delta Services
Delta Services is based in Toulouse, in southeastern France. It was created 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.

soon will be able to generate BIM (Building Information Modeling) data within their digital models. (See fact box for more information on BIM.)
For aluminium metal builders, the software
provides a useful sales tool. Our aim was to provide 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 photograph of the end users 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 measurements 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 clients home. The software uses
a process of simple geometrical blocks that are
assembled to create the nal 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 simulations. Our aim here was to make something as
simple and as appealing as Ikeas kitchen planner
but for verandas, Assemat says. Information
from the end users online simulation is sent directly 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 Assemat, 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, naturally, the ultimate goal.



21

Green Solutions RECYCLING

Old aluminium

never dies

Aluminium can be recycled over and over again,

consuming a small fraction of the energy required
to produce primary aluminium.
TEXT CARI SIMMONS PHOTO LAURI ROTKO/GETTY IMAGES

ECYCLING ALUMINIUM, WHICH

uses about 5 percent of the energy

required for producing primary
aluminium, makes sense both
environmentally and nancially.
Today, more than half of the aluminium in Sapas
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, brokers and Sapa customers.
Working with our customers on closed-loop
processes has proven to be a successful partnership for us and our customers, says Timothy Chimera, director of metal procurement for Sapa in
North America. In the closed-loop recycling process, industrial scrap is bought from customers
and turned back into its original state for remanufacturing, 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 dealers to facilitate the return of the scrap.
On the other side of the Atlantic, similar
programs are under way. For example, old lampposts, ooring and even ower trolleys from the
Netherlands have been purchased from custom-

22




ers and converted into new, nished 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 challenge, but a new sorting line at the operations in Tibshelf, UK, has made it possible to buy lower-grade material and
Making aluminium from
improve its quality by extracting all
recycled scrap uses 1/20th
contaminants, such as iron, zinc,
of the energy required
copper, plastics, wood and dust.
by primary aluminium
The machinery, which includes a
production. Customers
shredder, trommel, eddy current,
are increasingly seeking
magnetic separator and X-ray mathis "green" metal.
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 hardeners and other products.

No waste in the recycling process

G Aluminium can be recycled and reused indenitely
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 Sapas

G

production stems from scrap recycling and billets of

remelted aluminium.
About 75 percent of the almost 1 billion metric tons
of aluminium ever produced is still in productive use.
(Source: The International Aluminium Institute)




23

detail

The celling of energy storage

An assembly made of extrusions is housing Ioxuss new energy storage
cells. The New York-based company manufactures ultracapacitor
technology for transportation, alternative energy, medical, industrial
and consumer product markets.

Slots for printed

circuit boards.

Fins for
dissipating
heat.

FSW joints allow

forprecise assembly
tolerances.

Cell cradles.

Screw ports to
attach end caps.

24




The extrusion housing

serves as protection and
helps regulate the temperature of the cells. By bringing
several features together into
the extrusion, functionality
can be integrated at a low
cost.