Rio Tinto Alcan teams up with NRC to expand use of aluminium in vehicles

Rio Tinto Alcan Inc, Canadian aluminium producer has signed a 5-year partnership with National Research Council of Canada (NRC) to expand aluminium use in light vehicles & trains.

“We see that the demand in the automotive market will be growing within the next few years, so we want to find new ways to produce (aluminium) and new products that can help the industry build lighter vehicles,” Claudine Gagnon, Rio Tinto Alcan spokesperson said.

The partnership between Rio Tinto Alcan based in Montreal and federally-funded NRC will witness the new launch of a joint aluminium extrusion research program for improving the profitability of the metal and expand its reach to meet the industry demand.

The expanded use of the lightweight materials in light trucks and passenger vehicles has gained a lot of momentum in the recent years. The reason behind this is automakers are looking to boost the efficiency of fuel of their lineups.

With the regulations of tighter vehicle emissions in the pipeline, big manufacturers like Ford Motor Co. are opting for aluminium to reduce weight so that they can cut down greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

“We saw over the past few (automakers like) Ford are adding aluminium, Audi already has a lot of aluminium in its cars, Land Rover, Volvo,” Gagnon said. “We know it’s a sustainable choice to make, so we want to encourage them to use more aluminium and have lighter (products).”

Rio Tinto Alcan said their partnership is worth about $3.25-million, with the research and development work of the project conducted at their Arvida Research & Development Centre (ARDC) and research facilities of NRC, located in Saguenay, Que.