Tesla's ambitions for its Optimus humanoid robot extend well beyond factory automation, with the company envisioning a future in which robots could support vehicle servicing, logistics and even last-mile delivery. However, turning that vision into a commercially viable product will require more than advances in artificial intelligence and robotics. It will also depend on access to aluminium, critical minerals and the downstream manufacturing capabilities needed to produce increasingly sophisticated hardware at scale. Tesla has already taken an important step towards that ambition. On October 21, 2026, the company announced that Optimus production had begun on its high-volume manufacturing line in Fremont, California. Tesla described the units coming off the line as its first...
Aludecor, a pioneer and leader in Metal Composite Panel manufacturing, today announced the official launch of STONESENSE , an innovative architectural surface system engineered to deliver the timeless elegance and visual depth of natural stone without its traditional structural limitations. Inspired by the legacy and enduring power of natural stone, STONESENSE introduces a curated portfolio of engineered stone-finish metal composite surfaces. Developed for modern building envelopes, the series blends tactile aesthetic experience with advanced material performance, offering architects, builders, and developers a lightweight, highly durable and versatile alternative to mined stone. Designed for modern facades & envelopes The STONESENSE series is structured around three distinct material...
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As lightweight and low carbon emissions have become the two prime criteria for manufacturing vehicles, aluminium is hogging maximum limelight as a crucial raw material in the transportation industry for obvious reasons. The silvery-white metal is lightweight and infinitely recyclable, which has made the use of aluminium popular in manufacturing automobiles. To throw more light on the demand and consumption of aluminium in the transportation sector, AlCircle has published a report on “Future of Aluminium in Transportation Sector - an industry analysis with forecasts to 2027.” The report has revealed that aluminium consumption in the global transportation sector stood at around 25.5 million tonnes in 2021, representing 27% of the total global usage of 93.5 million tonnes. It grew 5.8% per...
Hailing from Denmark, VELUX, a global provider of construction variants, has signed an agreement with Hydro to reach a level below 2.0 kg of carbon emitted per kilogram of aluminium by 2030. This partnership will focus on the whole aluminium value chain, particularly on the extruded aluminium components Hydro supplies to Velux. As the manufacturer claims, by the end of 2022, this conglomeration would help Velux recede almost 15,000-20,000 tonnes of carbon from its aluminium profiles, where in the beginning, 94 per cent of its carbon footprint emerged from raw materials used in making the products. The roof window and skylights maker, Velux's Executive Vice President responsible for Products & Innovation, Tina Mayn, illustrated: "With buildings accounting for almost 40 per cent of CO2...
UK-based Sainsbury's is completely shifting to infinitely recyclable aluminium instead of plastic for making their flagship coffee pods. This attempt at sustainability has been followed by an initiative Sainsbury's took the previous year by morphing some of its coffee pod packagings from plastic to aluminium to aid customers in recycling their used coffee pods at home. The users only would have to empty the aluminium pods, wash them and put them in their local kerbside recycling bin. The supermarket chain claims this new aluminium packaging might save 10 million pieces of plastic annually. Overall, 11 SKUs, including Lungo, Espresso and Taste The Difference Signature Light Roast, will all be subjected to the change. Sainsbury's is also going to downsize the use of cardboard by 20 per cent...
The International Organization of Aluminium Aerosol Container Manufacturers (AEROBAL) revealed that during the first half of 2022, global exports by its members had increased by 5.5 per cent, reaching a total of almost 3 billion units. According to the reports, the surge in demand was mainly contributed by the hairspray, home goods and medicines industry. The hairspray industry reported a growth of 34 per cent compared to 2021, home good hiked by 15 per cent and medicines ascended by 9 per cent. The volume-dominant deodorant market and the 1.2 per cent contribution from the perfume market accounted for almost 57 per cent of all deliveries. “The global energy crisis, logistics bottlenecks and the lack of skilled workers are amongst the biggest worries of international aluminium aerosol can...
Octave de Gaulle, the ENSCI graduate designer interested in space objects and interiors has wrapped a glass bottle in an aeronautical-grade aluminium shell for French champagne house Maison Mumm, to grant champagne to be consumed in space. Mumm Cordon Rouge Stellar champagne was created by Maison Mumm for Axiom Space's flights to be "the first champagne bottle and tasting experience designed for space travel and human spaceflight". In addition to being contained in a bottle designed by De Gaulle, who founded an agency specialising in space designs called SPADE, it will also be supported by CNES and Comat. The "high-tech" bottle is designed to counter space-specific issues, including how champagne acts in the non-existence of gravity, while still clinging to the regulations of Champagne...
A South Korean plastic films maker, Youlchon Chemical Co., on September 28 signed a document confirming the supply of a primary battery component utilised heavily in electric vehicles. The US$1.04 billion supply deal was successfully drawn for the upcoming six years with the joint venture formed by U.S. General Motors Co. and LG Energy Solution Ltd, two of the most well-known brands in the modern world. Ultium Cells LLC, the LG and General Motors JV would accept highly-malleable aluminium pouch films used in lithium-ion battery pack casings from South-Korean Youlchon. The latter will provide the former with aluminium pouch films for the better part of 2023 all the way to 2028, as was reported by the company in a regulatory filing. This agreement is the first where a South Korean battery...
A state research organisation that created a low-cost casting-based neutron-absorbing aluminium composite material plate of up to two metres has transferred its technology to Konasol, a producer of titanium carbide alloy steels in South Korea. Konasol will use this technology to produce materials for spent nuclear fuel transport and storage containers. The term spent nuclear fuel refers to used nuclear fuel irradiated in a nuclear reactor. Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS) created inexpensive casting-based composite material plates because it was crucial to localise an aluminium composite material with neutron absorption capability. In dry casks and spent fuel storage racks, the criticality of fuel assemblies is avoided using neutron absorber materials. Neutron absorber...
With the opening of a printed can factory in 2022, American Canning will bring technologically cutting-edge, internationally renowned Aluminium Toyo Ultimate Can (aTULC) manufacture to Austin, Texas. David Racino, the Co-Founder and CEO of American Canning, along with COO and Co-Founder Mike Daniel, had come together in 2020 to address the lack of can packaging accessibility for the craft beer industry. Toyo Seikan was simultaneously looking to enter the American craft beverage sector with their newly created small manufacturing line. The aTULC line was created by Toyo Seikan (Japan) in order to balance the environmental impact of the manufacturing process with the limitless recyclability of an aluminium can. This was done in keeping with American Canning's vision of finding inventive and...
On 26 th September 2022, the Managing Director of the Gujarat-India headquartered Goldi Solar, Ishver Dholakiya, said that India’s leading quality solar PV module manufacturer is planning to invest around $600 million (INR 5,000 crore) by 2025 to proliferate its module manufacturing capacity to 6 gigawatts. Dholakiya added, "At present, the total module manufacturing capacity of its plants in Pipodara and Navsari, Gujarat is 2.5 gigawatts (GW)." During the launch of HELOC Plus (high-efficiency low on carbon) module series with Heterojunction technology, the MD said, “We have plans to infuse over $600 million (INR 5,000 crore) as part of expansion plans to increase module manufacturing from 2.5 GW to 6 GW." “The expansion of the renewable energy business will be channelled into auxiliary...
Contemporary design team we+ debuted their aluminium work, "Resonance: Vortex to Diversity," during Milan Design Week 2022. The piece has a large vortex-shaped volume covered in a single metallic pigment that simultaneously reveals several hues. Through a partnership with Toyo Aluminium, the surface of the large-scale artwork is highlighted in erratic, unexpected displays. "Resonance: Vortex to Diversity" was jointly developed by we+ and Toyo Aluminium for Milan Design Week, the most fantastic design event in the world. The work of art made of aluminium won the Special mention Fuorisalone Award 2022 and was displayed at Superstudio Più in Milan's Tortona neighbourhood. Coated purely in Chromashine, an interference aluminium pigment created by the Japanese company Toyo Aluminium, the...
Big companies in the aluminium industry are changing how their businesses operated in the past and implementing waste management techniques due to the global shift toward sustainability. Hylux, a US-based manufacturer of health beverages, has introduced a new recyclable, resalable aluminium bottle for its unflavoured spring water. The Boston campus of North-eastern University will be the first purchaser of the bottles, which will initially be made accessible to select organisations for sale and distribution within their networks. The second ship, built at Asyad Drydock, was successfully developed, according to Asyad Group, an Oman-based provider of logistical solutions. The 24-metre-long MEFK Pearl boat will travel through the Fujairah port once operational. The first Emirati astronaut,...
An amazing discovery was made earlier this year when Chris Coates, site manager at the Halton Mill received a phone call from one of his factory workers. It was reported that an unidentified aluminium car chassis has been uncovered in the corner of the scrapyard at the Wicks recycling yard in Cumbria, UK. What came forward with the unveiling suggested that Lancaster might have had a chance of becoming a car manufacturing area near the end of the World War II. The journey begins in November 1944, when Denis Kendall, the MP of Grantham announced the idea of a ‘People’s Car’ acquirable for just £100 and an additional £25 tax. This led to the foundation of a new company named Grantham Productions Limited, which he wished to base on the British Manufacturing and Research Company (BMARC) on...
Novo Capsule, a Switzerland-based joint venture, is the pioneer in producing aluminium coffee pods compatible with Nespresso machines that leave a smaller carbon footprint and have almost 8 per cent increasing demand in the near future due to its sustainability quotient. No wonder Novo Capsule is leading the production cycle to suffice this extraordinary demand for aluminium coffee pods. Spresso Novo-Cup, in collaboration with Leuthold Mechanik, a Swiss manufacturer of tools for deep-drawing Aluminium together create the brain of Novo Capsule; the companies oversee the operations of the world's largest unit for manufacturing aluminium espresso capsules. The coffee pod manufacturing business has seen steady growth despite the harrowing situations of the global pandemic, and as the National...
Hero Lectro, the premium e-cycle brand of Hero Cycles & e-bikes in India, recently introduced three new variants of their existing C and F series line-ups - the C1, C5x, and F1. The new e-cycles have cutting-edge aluminium alloy 6061 frames for higher structural strength and corrosion resistance. "Having launched the first e-cycles in India, we at Hero Lectro are today witnessing its widespread adoption across the length and breadth of India," said Aditya Munjal, Director at Hero Cycles. Aluminium alloy 6061 is a great option for bicycle frames. It offers stiffness, toughness and structural strength, strong corrosion resistance, and favourable machining properties. When welding is necessary as it is with bicycle frames, the 6061 alloys, which is alloyed with silicon and magnesium, is a...
Headquartered in Bozeman, Montana, Go Fast Campers has declared itself making the world's strongest truck topper that can support up to 800 pounds of dynamic load. The truck topper has been internally reinforced with steel, whereas; the outer tubular space frame consists of extruded aluminium. Apparently, this GFG Platform Topper is sturdier than the bed rails of any other contemporary pick-up truck. To prove the static load capacity of these toppers, the company has very carefully balanced a 4,500-pound Ford F-250 on top of a GFG Platform Topper mounted Toyota Tacoma. Although Jalopnik alumnus Wes Siler finds this an exaggeration, the move definitely justifies the company's claim. These aluminium-clad toppers are suitable for mini-trucks and can be used during camping expeditions and...
Emirates Global Aluminium, UAE’s largest organisation excluding the gas and oil sector, arranged for a virtual knowledge-sharing session chaired by the first Emirati astronaut, Hazzaa AlMansoori, to discuss the uses of aluminium in space. At this moment, astronaut Hazzaa AlMansoori has been preparing for the next mission with his team in the United States and seemed very upbeat about sharing information with the employees of EGA. His stories are deeply related to his phenomenal 2019 space endeavour. He was eager to share his purview on how aluminium has redefined the space sector with infinite possibilities for innovation. Aluminium is a vital substance for the aerospace industry for its heat and corrosion-resistant properties. EGA Youth Council member Amal Al Sayegh conducted the panel...
The heart of Scandinavia is bracing itself to receive the world's first zero-emission aviation technology developed by a group of Heart Aerospace engineers. A hangar at Gothenburg is currently housing the discovery. As Fredrik Kampfe from the Swedish Aviation Industry Group correctly puts it: "If not here, where else should be first with zero-emissions aviation?" Sweden has set an extraordinary goal where the country is on a journey towards achieving fossil-free domestic flights by 2030. The aviation industry also aims at making each outgoing flight from the country fossil-free by 2045. This is quite a big leap for the aviation industry since, for the first time, sustainability is at the peak of everything else. The Heart Aerospace engineers have custom-constructed an aluminium framework...
On Wednesday, September 21, Ball Corporation declared that it completed the sale of all its beverage packaging business in Russia to Arnest Group for $530 million to divest from the Russian market. Ball said Arnest Group, the largest manufacturer of aerosols in Russia and CIS countries, has purchased all of Ball’s Russian business. However, the sale is not likely to affect Ball’s business out of Russia by any means. "This decision is the result of many months of consideration, delivering a solution that best secures the future of Ball's colleagues and assets in Russia. We believe this is a sound outcome for Ball in these geo-political circumstances," said Dan Fisher, president and CEO Ball Corporation. In March, Ball Corporation curtailed operations across all its three manufacturing...
