Alcoa, Danieli to bring aluminum sheet technology around the world

LIGHTWEIGHT metals leader Alcoa will commercialize its breakthrough MicromillTM technology, working with the Danieli Group, a global supplier of plants and equipment to the metals industry. 

 

Danieli will license Alcoa’s intellectual property associated with manufacturing advanced Micromill® products. In a separate announcement, Alcoa and Ford Motor Company said that the automaker has selected Micromill material to be used on its 2016 Ford F-150 truck. 

 

Under the letter of intent, Alcoa and Danieli will work toward an agreement to sell Micromill equipment and license the patented Micromill technology. As part of the collaboration, Alcoa will grant Danieli exclusive rights to sell Micromill equipment for a limited period of time. In addition, the companies will work together to license the Micromill alloys and process technology to potential customers around the world, initially targeting Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia. 

 

To date, the Company has Micromill qualification agreements in place with nine major automotive customers on three continents, including Ford. 

 

In addition to Ford’s use of Micromill material on the F-150, Alcoa further announced today it has entered into a Joint Development Agreement to collaborate with the automaker on next-generation aluminum alloys for automotive parts using Micromill technology. The projected use of Micromill material on Ford vehicles is expected to more than double from 2016 to 2017. 

 

Micromill technology produces an aluminum alloy that is 40 percent more formable and 30 percent stronger than today’s automotive aluminum, while meeting stringent automotive surface quality requirements. Compared with parts made from high strength steel, automotive parts made with Micromill material are twice as formable and at least 30 percent lighter. 

 

In addition to the enhanced material properties that the Micromill delivers, it also significantly reduces production time. It is the fastest, most productive aluminum casting and rolling system in the world. A traditional rolling mill takes around 20 days to turn molten metal into a coil; Micromill does it in just 20 minutes.