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

Thegolden

age ofAmerican

cars

LIGHT TRANSPORTTRAINS, TRUCKS AND SHIPS SLIM DOWN

COOL CARS THE METAL OF

CHOICE IN INDIA

By reducing weight and cutting emissions,

U.S. automakers are transforming the way

they make cars

aluminium

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Editorial Contents

Shapes is the Sapa Group’s 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,

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Copyright © Sapa AS 2015 - Sapa's product names in this magazine are all trademarks of Sapa Group.

04Pedal to the metalAluminium is becoming more popular in different modes of mass transportation, from trucks to buses to trains.

08Lighter and brighterThe U.S. automotive industry is looking for more light-weighting material to improve fuel economy.

16Seeking balanceRavi Chidambar, CEO of Tata Toyo in India, is passionate about heat exchangers – and he looks for material with good thermal conductivity.

20Modern visualization3D software makes it possible to create a mock-up of a building or a room in a snap, right in the client’s home.

MORE TO READ

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

Momentum is growingA 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 Sapa’s 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 won’t rust. With its amazing signs, Sign

Resource uses aluminium’s versatility as a selling

point. These are the kinds of customers who

are bringing aluminium to the forefront

of manufacturing today.

Strong, lightweight and sustain-

able aluminium is changing the world

around us. Think about how

aluminium can help your busi-

ness. There is value in choosing

sustainable and innovative alu-

minium solutions.

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PATRICK LAWLORExecutive vice president Sapa Extrusion Americas

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How it worksHow it works

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 toleranc-es are achieved by sets of calibration rollers, before the tubes are cut to length.

Welded tubing offers a limited wall-thick-ness 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.

ILLUSTRATION PETR KOLLARČÍK

Welding aluminium tubes

HF (High Frequency) Induction Heating

Possible embossing

Forming rolls

Welding rolls

Sizing/Calibration rolls

Round tubes

B-type flat oval tubes Oval tubes Rectangular tubes

All sort of shapes are possible.

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Mass Transportation

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

Lean, green and on the move

555

A LFRED NOBEL, whose fortune was used to

establish the Nobel Prizes, may have been the

first 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 world’s population living in cities grows

to nearly 70 percent by 2050 and energy consumption for trans-

port 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 UN’s Climate Summit in New York. UIC Direc-

tor 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 roll-

ing stock.

Main segmentsMass transportation includes the movement of people as well as goods. The main market segments are:

G Trucks G Trailers G Trains (rolling stock) G Marine

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“Climate change is the defining issue of our

times,” says Loubinoux. “Rail offers an impor-

tant 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 in-

creases 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.

CLASS 8 TRUCKS on average use more than

500 kilograms of aluminium. The metal is

used primarily in interior and exterior appli-

cations, trailer structure, cabs and other criti-

cal 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 ship-

building did not begin until the 1960s, when

the price of the metal became more competi-

tive. 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 so-

called superstructures.

As with the other modes of mass transpor-

tation, 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 Nobel’s

passenger boat, a vessel called Defender sailed to

victory in one of the most prestigious regattas,

the America’s Cup. The boat was built with alu-

minium. But back then, the cost of the light metal

was 35 times more than the cost of steel.

Maxon is the world’s largest single-brand manu-facturer of liftgates for trucks. Its customers are becoming as interested in aluminium’s looks as in its light weight.

Maxon manufactures liftgates for light-, me-dium- and heavy-duty trucks. The California-based company says that these tend to be stored flush 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 plat-forms for Maxon’s 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 pret-ty,” Tejeda says. “They don’t want to see rust, and they don’t want their customers to see rust. They want aluminium, because it looks better longer.”

‘They don’t want to see rust’

mass transportation

Collins Manufacturing Company is a distribu-tor of Maxon liftgates.

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

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TEXT ANNA MCQUEEN PHOTO MIGUEL JELLISS

A light on the horizon

MIRIAM URIA WAS born in Vitoria, northern

Spain, studied engineering at university and

did her postgraduate training in management.

“I guess you might say I’m a people person, so

management ended up being the best fit for me,

although having an engineering background cer-

tainly 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, ensur-

ing 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 com-

pany year after year, and that’s never a fun job to

do. And at the same time as you’re laying people

off, you have to keep the remaining team moti-

vated and focused on the future.”

For Uria, the key to restructuring is respect.

“It’s a must when you’re handling layoffs, which

are very distressing for all concerned but particu-

larly for the soon-to-be ex-employee. Of course,

there are legal obligations, but it’s 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.

“We’re at a stage where the size of the company

in Spain and Portugal is adapted to the demands

of the market, and in the first quarter of 2015 we

finally began growing again,” she says.

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

Occupation: Supply chain director for Sapa Building Sys-tems, Iberia.Work location: Miranda de Ebro in Spain, and Lisbon, Ílhavo and Penafiel in Portugal.Family: Married with a three-year-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!

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Role model

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Either way you say it – here they call it aluminum – the metal is sizzling in the United States. And the nation’s

healthy appetite for the metal continues to grow.TEXT KEVIN WIDLIC PHOTO ED FREEMAN/GETTY IMAGES

Outlook AMERICA

The transformationof America

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 Alumi-

num Association. The automotive and building

sectors have led the push, particularly for extrud-

ed 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 signif-

icantly 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 ‘en-

vironmentally 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 Envi-

ronmental Design certification, in building design

and construction.”

CHRISTOPHER GRUNDLER IS director of the Of-

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

Environmental Protection Agency. He was part of

the team that developed the country’s first green-

house 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 combus-

tion 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 mak-

ing cars,” Grundler says.

This transformation will include aluminium,

says Alan Taub, a university professor and former

head of global research and development for Gen-

eral 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

over the past two years. Slightly more than 80

percent of the people employed in the United

States work at least 35 hours per week, according

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“ 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

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

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Outlook AMERICA

Clean energy manufacturingThe aluminium industry in the United States is experiencing good times, and this is important for the country. The U.S.-based Aluminum Association re-ports 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.

G 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 manufac-turing is what we consider clean energy manufacturing,” says senior adviser Da-vid Foster of the Department of Energy. “Aluminum industry jobs contribute to the economy and the environment.”

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 America’s 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? It’s 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 fleeting.”

“People are always wanting to

reinvent themselves,” says Mike

Jimenez of SignResource Identity

Group. “That is good for us.”

Signs of the times

TEXT KEVIN WIDLIC PHOTO RYAN SCHUDE

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SIGNRESOURCE IS A full-service manufacturer

of signage and identity solutions and the U.S. lead-

er in LED applications for corporate identification

programs. Headquartered in Maywood, Califor-

nia, 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 SignResource’s

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 ser-

vice lighting fixtures. SignResource has used ex-

trusions in its signs for 22 years.

“We’re 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, be-

cause the products today are more sophisticated

in terms of electricity and lighting. Our extruded

products meet and surpass UL (Underwriters

Laboratories) certification.”

When big companies change their visual iden-

tities, 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 five-year warranty, but I have seen some

last 20 years.”

“ 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

the picture

In the Sapa world, a laboratory is a room or facility that is equipped for conducting scientific 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.

Science never sleeps

This lab is located on the southwest coast of Norway, in Karmøy. Sapa’s 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.

TEXT KEVIN WIDLIC PHOTO TERJE RIAN

On the cutting edge

Electrochemical measurements show the reactions on the interface between the metal and an electrolyte solution.

Scanning electron microscope investi-gations can show how microstructures develop during the processing and fab-rication of aluminium products, and in what ways microstructure components influence the final properties.

Brazing is a joining process where a filler metal is heated above its melting temperature but below the melting point of the metals being joined.

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Mars rover’s aluminium spacesuitNASA’S $2.5 BILLION Mars rover mis-

sion Curiosity is the most ambitious in

the history of robotic space exploration.

It’s certainly the first time the world has

heard “Happy Birthday” sung from the

surface of the red planet, to mark the ro-

bot’s first year on Mars. Curiosity’s mis-

sion is to find 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 depart-

ment. Lightweight, durable and extraor-

dinarily strong, space-age aluminium

alloys were NASA’s material of choice for

the three-meter-long, 900-kilogram ro-

bot, the tough outer layer forming a pro-

tective 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.

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.

NORWEGIAN EYEWEAR company Kaibosh’s latest col-

lection is the result of an in-

spirational dialogue with Ber-

gen-based musician, producer

and eyewear lover Kristian

Stockhaus. The aluminium

frames come in seven styles

and are named after key mo-

ments in Stockhaus’s life.

NORDIC WALKING originated

in Finland as a summer training

regime for cross-country skiers

but has since spread all over the

world. The popular workout in-

creases energy consumption and

overall fitness levels. But don’t be

surprised if you see Nordic walk-

ing enthusiasts running or jump-

ing with their poles at night. The

reflective prints on Silva’s tele-

scopic aluminium poles make it

easier to see walkers exercising

under cover of darkness.

Power up for a power walk

News

He’s got the look

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A healing piece of art

of aluminium drinks cans are recycled in Europe.

PERCENT

Hospitals could often use a comforting sight. And that’s just what Linda Covits’s monu-mental artwork Havre is meant to provide. Designed to evoke a sense of community and hope, the sculp-ture – made from rectangular aluminium tubes and LED projec-tors – enfolds patients, staff and visitors to Montreal’s McGill

University Health Centre in its protec-tive, 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 starsSAPA 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 com-

pany De Wilde’s spectacular construction.

Improving kids’ quality of funGALOPIN, SPAIN’S LEADING designer

and manufacturer of outdoor playground

equipment and playscapes, is now using

aluminium profiles instead of wooden

pillars for its swings and towers.

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Keeping cars cool in India

TEXT R F MAMOOWALAPHOTO SAMEER BELVALKAR

In India’s growing automotive industry, aluminium is the logical choice for making heat exchangers for fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly vehicles.

THE INDIAN AUTO INDUSTRY has come a long

way from the 1960s and ’70s, when drivers head-

ing up mountain roads had to stop to cool the en-

gine by pouring water into the radiator. “Nobody

opens the bonnet these days; if you do, it is an in-

sult 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 there’s motion

– cars, trucks and so on – there will be friction

producing heat, and we have to find devices to cool

it down or heat it up in cold climates,” he says. “As

long as there is motion, we’ll never run out of busi-

ness.”

After a slump, the Indian auto industry is dis-

playing some green shoots, with passenger cars

growing at about 4 percent annually and commer-

cial vehicles at 8 to 10 percent. India is a hugely

price-sensitive market, and gradually auto manu-

facturing has gone local to make vehicles afford-

able through government incentives and favorable

duties. Higher purchasing power has boosted de-

mand 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 Toyo’s 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 ex-

changers, and Tata Toyo now makes seven of

these, with more in the pipeline. Those will roll

out when electric cars and cars with hybrid con-

figurations take off. “In some heat exchangers we

now use stainless steel, which we’re trying to con-

vert to aluminium,” he says.

Profile RAVI CHIDAMBAR

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Ravi Chidambar

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

Advantage aluminiumAluminium’s main advantage is its formability, ductility and ability to make brazed parts, as opposed to welded parts. Brazing of two ma-terials is superior when you need good thermal contact. As Tata Toyo Radiator CEO Ravi Chidambar says, “Earlier we had copper and brass radiators, copper fins and brass tubes, but the bonding between the fin and tube was by soldering, involving the use of lead. And lead conduc-tivity is less than that of copper and brass.”

Aluminium fins and tubes (he uses Sapa’s 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.

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Solutions can’t be found in textbooks. They are application-based,” says Ravi Chidambar

Aluminium is lightweight and has good ther-

mal conductivity, even though lower than that

of copper. Its amenability to various layering of

alloys is another advantage. “Even though sus-

ceptible to some degree of corrosion, it is tougher

and lightweight and costs less than copper,” he

says. “In the electrical industry today, transmis-

sion wires in large-size cables are all made of alu-

minium.”

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 can’t be found in

textbooks. They are application-based. You learn

and improve with practice, and after several trials

comes the final 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 con-

straints and boundaries around which all designs

happen, but you have to overcome the challenges

to meet your goals – technical, commercial, safety

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 in-

dustry will only grow. “Aluminium won’t get obso-

lete 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 Indi-

an car buyer first 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.

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

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trends

PREFERRED CHOICEAluminium, at one-third the

price per ton of copper, is increas-ingly 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 RISESBy 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 fos-sil 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 heat-

transfer fluid 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 ap-plications.

COATED ALUMINIUMUsing special coatings in-

creases aluminium’s solar radiation absorption factor from 15 to 95 percent. Such coatings are essential on collector absorbers to increase solar radiation conversion ef-ficiency while reducing weight and corrosion.

solar thermal trendsAluminium 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

References: The Solar Design Company and “Aluminium and Renewable Energy Systems – Prospects for the Sustainable Generation of Electricity and Heat, final versioncommissioned by the International Aluminium Institute”, www.solardesign.co.uk/, www.world-aluminium.org/media/filer_public/2013/01/15/fl0000407.pdf

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Development

Verandas in a flashTEXT ANNA MCQUEEN

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. It’s not science fiction – the future is already here.

1. Create the shape of your veranda project.2. Integrate items and open the sliders to make it more realistic.3. Integrate your own con-struction on the picture of your house to visualize the final result.

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Delta Services is based in Toulouse, in southeastern France. It was cre-ated 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.

T 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 brand’s

customers sell verandas more easily to end us-

ers, 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 flash.

“It’s very important to work in close coopera-

tion with our customers on projects such as this,

when the need comes directly from them,” ex-

plains Bertrand Assemat, Delta Services director.

“We subcontracted the software development to a

Hungarian firm that specializes in these kinds of

solutions, and they worked from our very specific

requirements to enable us to release a first 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.

“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 cre-

ation of complex 3D construction like façades, and

Delta Services

soon will be able to generate BIM (Building Infor-

mation Modeling) data within their digital mod-

els.” (See fact box for more information on BIM.)

For aluminium metal builders, the software

provides a useful sales tool. “Our aim was to pro-

vide 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 photo-

graph of the end user’s 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 measure-

ments 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 client’s home. The software uses

a process of simple geometrical blocks that are

assembled to create the final 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 simula-

tions. “Our aim here was to make something as

simple and as appealing as Ikea’s kitchen planner

but for verandas,” Assemat says. “Information

from the end user’s online simulation is sent di-

rectly 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 As-

semat, 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, natu-

rally, the ultimate goal.”

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

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Green Solutions RECYCLING

TEXT CARI SIMMONS PHOTO LAURI ROTKO/GETTY IMAGES

R ECYCLING ALUMINIUM, WHICH uses about 5 percent of the energy

required for producing primary

aluminium, makes sense both

environmentally and financially.

Today, more than half of the aluminium in Sapa’s

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, bro-

kers and Sapa customers.

“Working with our customers on closed-loop

processes has proven to be a successful partner-

ship for us and our customers,” says Timothy Chi-

mera, director of metal procurement for Sapa in

North America. In the closed-loop recycling pro-

cess, industrial scrap is bought from customers

and turned back into its original state for remanu-

facturing, 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 deal-

ers to facilitate the return of the scrap.”

On the other side of the Atlantic, similar

programs are under way. For example, old lamp-

posts, flooring and even flower trolleys from the

Netherlands have been purchased from custom-

ers and converted into new, finished 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 chal-

lenge, but a new sorting line at the opera-

tions in Tibshelf, UK, has made it pos-

sible to buy lower-grade material and

improve its quality by extracting all

contaminants, such as iron, zinc,

copper, plastics, wood and dust.

“The machinery, which includes a

shredder, trommel, eddy current,

magnetic separator and X-ray ma-

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 hard-

eners and other products.

Aluminium can be recycled over and over again, consuming a small fraction of the energy required to produce primary aluminium.

never dies

Making aluminium from recycled scrap uses 1/20th

of the energy required by primary aluminium

production. Customers are increasingly seeking

this "green" metal.

Old aluminium

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No waste in the recycling process

G Aluminium can be recycled and reused indefinitely 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 Sapa’s production stems from scrap recycling and billets of remelted aluminium.

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

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Screw ports to attach end caps.

Slots for printed circuit boards.

Fins for dissipating

heat.

Cell cradles.

FSW joints allow for precise assembly tolerances.

The extrusion housing serves as protection and

helps regulate the tempera-ture of the cells. By bringing

several features together into the extrusion, functionality can be integrated at a low

cost.

The celling of energy storageAn assembly made of extrusions is housing Ioxus’s new energy storage

cells. The New York-based company manufactures ultracapacitor technology for transportation, alternative energy, medical, industrial

and consumer product markets.

detail