Alcoa reveals next-generation aluminium materials

Lightweight metals manufacturer Alcoa on Thursday unveiled its breakthrough-manufacturing technology, the Alcoa Micromill, that would manufacture the most advanced aluminium sheet on the market, enabling the company to capture growing demand for next generation automotive aluminium products. The Alcoa-patented Micromill process dramatically changed the microstructure of the metal, allowing the production of an aluminium alloy for automotive applications that has 40% greater formability and 30% greater strength than the current aluminium used, while meeting stringent automotive surface-quality requirements.