Ducati has unveiled the Desmo450 SM, a new production supermoto developed from its Desmo450 MX platform, featuring an aluminium twin-spar frame. This is designed to combine low weight, rigidity and strength. The motorcycle made its debut during World Ducati Week and is aimed at competition use. The Desmo450 SM uses the same aluminium frame architecture as the motocross model. Ducati says the frame has also been designed to allow a straighter intake route while maintaining the strength and rigidity needed for high-performance riding. The bike has a fuel capacity of 7.2 litres. The company has also focused on reducing weight in other areas. Its Bartubeless wheel system, for example, removes inner tubes and cuts rotating and unsprung mass by 1.2kg. The motorcycle also features a cast...
China’s aluminum door and window manufacturing sector includes a range of suppliers offering thermal-break systems, customized solutions, OEM/ODM production, and products for international building projects. A recent industry guide highlights Guangdong Dejiyoupin, Guangdong EEHE, Foshan CIVO, Sichuan Yazhixuan, and Sichuan Mingrenju, citing their production capabilities, product portfolios, project experience, customization services, and testing or certification coverage. The companies differ in their areas of focus. Dejiyoupin is highlighted for its production capacity and international certifications, while EEHE is noted for patents and a broad range of project solutions. CIVO focuses on factory-direct customization and climate-oriented systems, while Yazhixuan provides OEM/ODM...
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In the background of excess beverage cans supply in China. American soda can maker Ball Corporation is reportedly planning to sell its manufacturing facilities in China at about US$225 million. The news came when the company announced about its plans. The company plans to sell the can-making facilities to Chinese metal packaging company ORG Technology Co Ltd. Ball Corporation makes aluminium cans for Coca-Cola Co, Anheuser Busch Inbev NV, and Molson Coors Brewing Co. Company spokeswoman Renee Robinson told Reuters, "Excess industry capacity in China has led to unsustainable business conditions and inadequate returns on capital deployed relative to Ball's expectations." He added, “The sale was unrelated to tariffs on aluminium or trade tensions between the United States and China.” On...
The U.S. is one of the leading consumers of aluminium cans in the world. Due to the growing recognition of the aluminium can as one of the most recycled aluminium products in the world and as one of the most sustainable packaging solution, the use of aluminium cans is growing around the world, especially in developed countries. Aluminium soda cans and beer cans have a large sales volume in Canada and the U.S. The world's beer and soda consumption uses about 200 billion aluminium cans every year. {newsStudioGallery} The U.S. imported 19,849 tonnes of aluminium cans in 2016 with an estimated import cost of US$ 151 million. The import volume jumped up to 20,288 tons in 2017 with a cost of about US$ 155 million. This records a growth of about 2.2 per cent YOY indicating a rise in can...
Headquartered in Dubai, HUECK Middle East (ME) Aluminium Systems, announced that it set-up a new office in Dubai, to offer improved customer experience, enhance profitability prospects, and strengthen its brand in the UAE and the rest of the Middle East region. HUECK ME made the announcement at its gala dinner organised for regional partners, at The Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi Beach Resort, Dubai. The new office is equipped to deliver high-quality technical, engineering, and supply chain solutions for various projects in the region. HUECK ME is also committing in new resources and training centres; fresh inventory of aluminium systems, hardware, and required accessories; and best-in-class technical and after-sales support to achieve seamless customer interface. Modar Al Mekdad, the Managing...
The 2019 Ram 1500 did not use much aluminium, but its fellow FCA truck the 2020 Jeep Gladiator will use the light metal extensively in its exterior parts over a steel body. The truck will use aluminium in spades, with the hood, doors, hinges fenders, windshield frame and tailgate built from the substrate. Michigan based Repairer Driven News (RDN) recommends that the repair companies must have repair facilities for both steel and aluminium. This may require considerable investment in dedicated equipment and space and in aluminium dust extraction process in order to work on modern vehicles with aluminium parts. Otherwise, it may lead to corrosion from cross-contamination of steel and aluminium. “When working with aluminium always use dedicated tools, grinding discs and sandpaper to prevent...
Ball has created an exclusive premium aluminium can design for Tuborg’s Christmas edition beer in collaboration with Carlsberg Srbija Group. Ball’s experts have created the dark lager’s caramel notes and festive mood and incorporated the famous Tuborg logo alongside Christmas trees, reindeers and snow using Ball’s innovative Eyeris® High Definition printing techniques. The aluminium beer can will be designed and produced in Ball’s packaging facility in Serbia, the cans will use the 50-centiliter standard format and techniques. Commenting on the use of aluminium in its beverage packaging, Ana Mira Milinkovic, Procurement Supply Manager at Carlsberg Srbija Group, comments: “We knew we wanted to use aluminium for our packaging as the cans not only allow us to build strong numeric...
Carlisle Companies Incorporated, a global leader in commercial and industrial building envelope products has announced it will acquire Petersen Aluminum Corporation, a manufacturer of high-quality metal roofing products through its subsidiary Carlisle Construction Materials (CCM) for approximately $197 million. Headquartered in Illinois, Petersen’s primary business is the manufacture and distribution of metal roof panels, steel and aluminium flat sheets and aluminium coils, wall panels, perimeter roof edge systems and related accessories for construction, industrial and agricultural sectors. The company is a leader in its served markets with approximately $160 million of annual revenue. Chris Koch, CEO and President, said, "The acquisition of Petersen is part of our strategy of providing...
Heesen Yachts, in collaboration with Arcon Yachts, which introduced the client, has reportedly sold its 50-metres superyacht Project Aster. Project Aster, also known as Hull YN18750 is the seventh iteration of the Heesen 5000 Aluminium class, designed by Frank Laupman of Omega Architects. It is the third yacht sold by the company this year, adding up to a total of 190 linear metres and 3,259GT. “The whole concept started in about 2011 with the delivery of Satori [now Septimus ],” said Cavendish of the class. “She was the first one and she won multiple awards, so that kicked off the whole thing for a very good start, and since then we’ve consistently delivered one a year on average.” The boat features six staterooms including a main deck master suite and five lower deck cabins and has...
According to an Automotive News China report, Electric-vehicle startup NIO is on target to sell 10,000 vehicles in 2018. The company launched its first product the seven-seat ES8 crossover, in June. The company said that in November, it delivered 3,089 ES8s to the market, registering a 96 per cent increase from October 2018. The ES8 comes with a starting price of RMB 448,000 ($65,211). The November sales number brought total sales volume of the ES8 to 8,030 from June to November. From Dec. 1, Nio has started booking orders for its second EV model, the ES6, a five-seat crossover with a tentative starting price of RMB 370,000. Both ES8 and ES6 are assembled at Jianghuai Automobile Co., a state-owned automaker in the east China city of Hefei. Nio signed a manufacturing contact with Jianghuai...
Microdrones, a manufacturer and supplier of customized and intelligent UAV/drone solutions in Germany, has announced it has merged with Schübeler Technologies, a provider of robust turbo fans, jets, compressors, pumps, electric motors, carbon fiber and aluminium composites. Daniel Schübeler, Founder and CEO of Schübeler Technologies stated: “Merging with Microdrones empowers us to develop and deliver systems where we can best support customers locally. This is a happy homecoming for me and the team that we’ve built over the past twenty years.” “Both of these companies have enjoyed global growth and impressive technological advancements independently- merging our talents and teams will yield amazing solutions in the years to come.” Schübeler products provide thrust power and lightweight...
A new mixed-use development in the heart of a historic part of Leicester in the recent time has reportedly received a modern makeover. Thanks to the range of aluminium fenestration solutions that have been used for the remodelling from Senior Architectural Systems. The building, located in the New Walk area of the city on the site of the former council offices, is designed by Franklin Ellis Architects and features office space, residential apartments, and ground floor retail units. Besides Senior Architectural Systems, John Sisk, with whom Senior has an established supplier agreement, and specialist contractor Elite Aluminium Systems have also worked for the makeover of the building. To maximise the benefits of supply chain collaboration and value engineering, Senior’s experienced team of...
Showa Aluminum Can Corporation (SAC), a consolidated subsidiary of Showa Denko (SDK) and Carabao Group PCL (CBG), a leading beverage maker headquartered in Bangkok, jointly held a completion ceremony for new aluminium can plant owned and operated by Asia Can Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (ACM). As a result of the completion of the new aluminium plant, Showa Denko Group's capacity to manufacture aluminium cans in Southeast Asia has been expanded to 3 billion cans a year, including that of Hanacans Joint Stock Company of Vietnam, it said in its press release. ACM will supply high-quality aluminium cans manufactured by leading-edge technologies and quality management system built up by SAC over many years. ACM will support CBG’s overseas sales, centering on Southeast Asian countries, China and the...
An European Aluminium Foil Association report says over 150 million Santa Clauses are produced annually for the holiday season in Europe. They are produced in Germany and also in other countries like Austria. Based on an average size of 0.025 square meters per figure, this is more than 3,750,000 square meters. Almost all of the chocolate hollow figures are wrapped in shiny and colourful aluminium foils to add the festive iconic look. According to EAFA, the aluminium foil offers complete protection to the chocolate Santas from the light and other external influences. “The deadfold effect of the aluminum foil allows the foil to be wrapped tightly around the chocolate product during packaging and remains so in the supermarket or other points of sale until it arrives at the consumer for the...
Alstom India is reportedly aiming to roll out trains made of aluminium, while at the same time, reading to double its metro coach building capacity at a plant in Sri City in Andhra Pradesh in a bid to meet Montreal Metro and Mumbai Metro orders for trains. The news came when Alain Spohr, Managing Director for India and South Asia, Alstom, told reporters today, December 6, "We will be doubling our capacity by setting up a new line that could manufacture 22 cars per month. We are also studying the feasibility for rolling out trains made of aluminium." Alain Spohr also intimidated reporters about receiving orders for 10 more metro trains from Chennai Metro. According to Spohr, the Montreal Metro and Mumbai Metro orders will be executed from 2019 onwards. Both the orders involved supplying...
On December 4, 2018, Australian ship-building company Austal Limited confirmed that it bagged a contract of almost half a million TT dollars for designing and constructing a high-speed vehicle and passenger catamaran for Trinidad and Tobago. Contracted by the National Development Company (NIDCO), Austal will build the 94-metre high-speed vessel worth TT$ 486 million (approx.) and expectedly deliver by mid-2020. The ship, named the AutoExpress, will provide high-speed passenger and vehicle operations on the key sea bridge between the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The designing of the ship has already begun in Australia and is already well-advanced with initial construction being undertaken. The design of the ship underscores its capability to carry 250 cars and 926 passengers at speeds...
UNSW Sydney’s Dr Dong Jun Kim and his team of researchers found that aluminium-ion batteries could offer improved renewable energy storage and have much more potential in the field of renewable energy storage. Dr Dong Jun Kim has completed a study at Northwestern University in Illinois which led a team of researchers including Nobel Laureate Sir Fraser Stoddart to demonstrate a strategy for designing active materials for rechargeable aluminium batteries. This has taken aluminium-ion batteries one step closer to reality. “We found a novel way to design rechargeable aluminium batteries by employing a redox-active macrocyclic compound as the active material,” Dr Kim said. So far, one of the key challenges in making aluminium ion batteries is to find appropriate host electrodes for insertion...
Constellium announced it supplied aluminium automotive body sheets for the new Audi A6. The company delivered Surfalex® with high surface quality and particular hemming and roping properties for the doors as well as for the trunk. It also supplied Securalex® P6, a high-tech crash absorption alloy, for the hood of the Audi A6. This highly formable alloy has been designed to fulfil the most demanding pedestrian safety requirements. Dieter Höll, Vice President of Global Automotive at Constellium said: “Constellium is proud to extend its long-term partnership with Audi and to accompany them in their mission to build high quality automobiles. To do so, Constellium supports Audi in solutions not only for closures but also for body-in-white parts requiring specific crash and mechanical...
As the U.S. and China have entered a 90-day truce in the current trade war, White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow expected that China could immediately slash its vehicle tariffs on cars imported from the U.S. He believed the immediate after action could be a rolling back of 40 per cent tariffs on U.S.-produced vehicles followed by new retaliatory tariffs it had imposed on agricultural imports. "We expect those tariffs to fall to zero," he said in reference to the auto tariffs. Though the 90-day clock for negotiations would start on Jan1, China had pledged to start lifting both tariff and non-tariff barriers at earliest disposal. Other than tariffs another agreement is expected on intellectual property theft. “They are pretty close to some agreements on the IP (intellectual property)...
The Schüco Group’s FireStop aluminium fire and smoke protection range of doors and window system has received the prestigious German Design Award 2019 out of the total, 5400 entries. The Schüco Group develops and sells system solutions for windows, doors, façades, sliding systems, security technology and sun shading. German Design Award aims to discover, present, and honour unique trends in design, both in product as well as in communication. Commenting on the fenestration product, German Design Award 2019 jury said: "This system is notable for its outstanding versatility, even while in use. The fact that the technical elements are invisibly integrated into the frame endows the door with a spiffy look. A superb product, which, with consummate artistry, combines functionality, safety and...
